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THE BELGIANS AT HOME 





1 ^"j.v«»«.«,'«r.-v.'r.UJW!IZB' 



THE 
BELGIANS AT HOME 



BY 

CLIVE HOLLAND 

AUTHOR OF ^'^ TYROL AND ITS PEOPLE 



WITH SIXTEEN PICTURES IN COLOUR BY 

DOUGLAS SNOWDON 

AND TWENTY OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
THE author's photographs 



BOSTON 
LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY 

1911 






l^tr? 



II 



PREFACE 

IN the following book the writer has not sought to provide 
"A History of Belgium," a purely architectural or 
archaeological " guide " to its beautiful and historical build- 
ings, or a detailed treatise upon its world-famed art treasures. 
There are already many volumes which cover separately and 
fully all these aspects of the country and its possessions. 

The present volume deals with Belgium and its people 
from the point of view of a rambler who has at various times 
cycled and travelled many hundreds of miles along its high- 
ways and by-ways, and has sought to learn something of its 
past history, greatness, and romance, and to see many of its 
greatest architectural and art treasures in most of its known, 
and some of its comparatively unknown, towns and villages. 

It is a record of things seen and impressions gained. An 
attempt to present within the compass of a single volume of 
reasonable length the Belgium of the past and of to-day, and 
something at least of its alluring charm, picturesqueness, 
and extraordinary interest for the tourist and the student, 
whether of history, art, or character. 

Every care has been taken with the spelling of proper 
names, and to verify dates. But it need not be pointed out 
to the experienced archaeologist or historian that often these 
are conflicting. A standard authority has been followed in 
each case, and the author trusts, therefore, that in this 
respect there will be very few errors discoverable. 

For those readers who wish to specialize or to pursue any 
of the subjects touched upon in the present volume, in greater 



vi THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

detail, the following works (some of which are quoted or 
referred to in the text) will doubtless prove of interest. 

UHistoire de V Architecture en Belgique, par M. Schaeys; 
" Great Masters," by Sir William Martin Conway; UHistoire 
Constitutionnelle de la Ville de Bruges, par M. Gheldorf ; that 
old but excellent volume La Vie des Peintres Flamandsypar 
Jean Baptiste Descamps; "Sacred and Legendary Art," by 
Mrs. Jameson ; " Rubens," by S. L. Bensusan ; " Memlinc," 
by W. H. J. and J. C. Weale ; " Franz Hals," by Edgcumbe 
Staley ; " Van Dyck," by Percy M. Turner ; " Rembrandt," by 
Josef Israels (all in the " Masterpieces in Colour " Series) ; 
** The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium," by T. Francis 
Bumpus ; " Architectural Grandeur," by Wild ; ** The Church 
in the Netherlands," by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A.; 
** Handbook of Gothic Architecture," by the same ; " Nether- 
lands," in "National Churches Series," by the same; 
" Beauties of Continental Architecture," by John Coney ; 
Ldgendes de la Meuse, by De Nimal, and " The History and 
Topography of Belgium," by N. G. Van Kampen. 



CLIVE HOLLAND 
Bruges 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

I-AGK 

The Story of Belgium from the Earliest Times down 

TO the Present Day ..... i 

CHAPTER II 
The Men and Women of Belgium - - - - 29 

CHAPTER III 
Some Seaside Towns and Life on the "Plages" - - 51 

CHAPTER IV 

Along Old Roads in West Flanders and Hainault to 

Courtrai - - - - - - - 74 

CHAPTER V 

TOURNAI AND THROUGH Le BORINAGE TO NaMUR - - I02 

CHAPTER VI 

Namur, Dinant, Givet, the Valley of the Meuse, and 

THE Road to Brussels - - - - - 132 

CHAPTER VII 
Brussels Past and Present - - - - - 154 

vii 



viii THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 

LouvAiN AND Waterloo - - - - - - 193 

CHAPTER IX 
The Story of Malines and Antwerp - - - - 214 

CHAPTER X 
Ghent : Its Story and Historic Buildings - - ' - 254 

CHAPTER XI 
The Storied Charm of Ancient Bruges - - - 275 

CHAPTER XII 

Some Ancient Buildings, and Some Known and Less 

Known Haunts in Bruges - - - - 307 

Index- - - - - - - - - 327 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR 



ACROSS THE SCHELDT, ANTWERP 

OSTEND FISHING-FLEET IN HARBOUR 

BEACH AND CASINO, OSTEND 

GRANDE PLACE, CLOTH HALL, AND OLD HOUSES, YPRES 

THE BROELTORENS, COURTRAI 

DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL, TOURNAI 

ALONG THE BANKS OF THE SAMBRE, NAMUR 

DINANT ...... 

GRANDE PLACE AND h6tEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS 
ST. GUDULE, BRUSSELS - . . - 

LOUVAIN BY NIGHT ----- 

CHATEAU D'HOUGOMONT, WATERLOO 

A COURTYARD, MALINES - - - - 

A STREET SCENE IN ANTWERP 
CHATEAU DES COMTES, GHENT 
A BRUGES QUAY AND VIEW OF BELFRY 



FACING PAGE 

Frontispiece 



26 

58 
86 
100 
118 
136 
148 
172 
182 
200 
212 
226 
240 
270 
310 



IX 



X THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

ILLUSTRATIONS IN MONOTONE 

FACING PAGE 

A CORNER OF A FLANDERS DAIRY FARM - - - - l8 

LES PETITES MARCHANDES DES JOURNAUX, BRUSSELS - - 44 

GOING HOME FROM MARKET - - - - "SO 

CANAL LIFE IN BELGIUM - - - - - - 64 

A CORNER OF COURT-ROOM, WITH RENAISSANCE CHIMNEY- 
PIECE, COURTRAI - - - - - - 96 

ROOD LOFT, TOURNAI CATHEDRAL - - - - - I08 

TRIUMPHAL CAR OF ST. WALTRUDIS IN THE CATHEDRAL, MONS 1 28 

THE CHATEAU DE GODINNE ON THE BANKS OF THE MEUSE - 142 

THE FLOWER MARKET, GRANDE PLACE, BRUSSELS - - 190 

LACE-MAKERS AT WORK - - - - - - 2o8 

THE EVENING MEAL IN THE B^GUINAGE - - - - 220 

Photo, Theo de Graeve, Bruges 

GRANDE PLACE AND CATHEDRAL, MALINES - - - 222 

DUTCH HOUSES AND QUAI, MALINES .... 330 

THE PLACE VERTE AND RUBENS MONUMENT, ANTWERP- - 236 

THE PROMENADE AND ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL QUAIS, GHENT • 260 

THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB. BY HUBERT AND JAN VAN 

EYCK. (cathedral OF ST. BAVON, GHENT) - - 264 
Photo, W. A. Mansell 

ST. URSULA ARRIVES AT COLOGNE. BY HANS MEMLINC. (ST. 

JOHN'S HOSPITAL, BRUGES) ... - - 284 
PhotOf F. Han/staengl 

THE DEATH OF ST. URSULA. BY HANS MEMLINC. (ST. JOHN'S 

HOSPITAL, BRUGES) ..--.. 288 
Photo, F, Hanfstaengl 

THE COURTYARD OF ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL, BRUGES - - 320 

A CANAL AND VISTA OF NOTRE DAME, BRUGES - - - 324 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



CHAPTER I 

THE STORY OF BELGIUM FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES 
DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY 

THE earliest history of the country which we know 
now under the name of Belgium is — like that of many 
another — lost in the mists of antiquity. But it is at 
least more or less certain that the first inhabitants were of 
Prankish race, and crossed the Rhine in the third century, 
settling in the district known as Toxandria, which extended 
in those days from the neighbourhood of Maastricht for a 
distance of about fifty miles along the Meuse and between 
it and the lower Rhine, covering a district where now stand 
Antwerp, Breda, and Bois-le-Duc. In the case of the Franks 
they, in succeeding years after their first settlement, advanced 
steadily from the left bank of the Rhine, and though they were 
checked by the Romans under Julian in his victory of Tox- 
andria he did not succeed in driving them back, and not- 
withstanding his successes in arms left them in possession 
of the country between the Scheldt and Maas, which they 
had already seized. 

Earlier in their history during the third century these 
same Franks had proved themselves a thorn in the flesh to 
the Roman Emperors on account of their astonishing bold- 
ness, and their maritime adventurings. But with the fourth 
century they appear to have become almost entirely attached 
to the land of which they had possessed themselves, having, 
it would seem, largely abandoned their former methods of 
piracy for the cultivation of the rich soil and less maritime 
pursuits. They had, as a matter of fact, been driven back 



2 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

by the Saxons, who formed another of the recently founded 
confederations of Teutonic peoples out of which nations 
were destined to spring. 

In these ancient times the Franks appear to have become 
rather the masters of the Romans (holding as it were the 
balance) than allies as we now understand the term. 

By the reign of Honorius the Franks had extended their 
territory, and were firmly established in Gaul, so that the 
hapless Roman province became from the Meuse and the 
Rhine to the shores of the Mediterranean itself a vast 
battlefield rich in plunder and therefore attractive to the 
predatory instincts of the Frankish pirates and other similar 
tribes. 

The best that the Roman generals, ^tius among the 
number, could do was to set the barbarians fighting amongst 
themselves in the hope, apparently, that they would exter- 
minate each other. And as though to make the history of 
these years for unfortunate future historians more compli- 
cated and confused, and to prove what a disorganized and 
wasted province Gaul had become, the Frankish tribes fell 
out among themselves, and were at the Battle of Chalons in 
A.D. 451 found fighting on opposite sides. In this horrible 
conflict, noted for its colossal slaughter, the fate of Gaul 
hung in the balance — whether it should pass to the Huns 
or to tribes a little less barbarous than they. The battle, 
which was its last great victory, cost the Roman Empire 
dear. 

Exhausted by the campaign, and in reality now placed 
under the heel of its allies, it fell upon evil times ; so that 
the real rulers of Gaul at this period were the Visigoths, 
who, with their headquarters at Tolosa, the present-day 
Toulouse, held the southern part firmly. The Franks had 
possessed themselves of the northern, and the Burgundians 
of the eastern, portions of Gaul. Ultimately the former 
conquered the other tribes, and divided the whole of Gaul 
between the sons of their kings. We have only to do with 
the latter, who ultimately founded the kingdom of the 
Frankenric, or Freeland, afterwards evolved into France as 
we now know it, to which for many centuries Flanders and 
the greater part of Belgium was attached. 

The history of the Franks and the Flemish is for several 
centuries so confused and complicated that Gregory of 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 3 

Tours, the famous historian and writer, who lived from 
A-D. 539-595> does not mention Pharamond, of whom the 
French historians have written so much, and who has 
iigured so largely in historic romance. The authorities 
who refer to Chlodion and Meroveus cannot be said to be 
above suspicion when they write of them as being sole 
rulers of the Franks from 430 till 448. Even Gregory, 
though living comparatively so soon after this period, 
appears to be uncertain about them. 

The Childeric, who is, after all, the earliest certainly known 
ruler of the branch of the Franks which took up their head- 
quarters at Tournacum, or Tournai, in West Flanders, was a 
remarkable man, gifted with an equally astonishing wife, 
and a famous son, Clovis. He was ultimately banished by 
his people on account of his disgraceful gallantries, and fled 
to the barbaric Court of Basinus, King of the Thuringians, 
and was received by this ruler and his wife, Basina, with 
open arms. Adversity is said to make strange bed-fellows ; 
and certainly in ancient and medieval times it made strange 
companions. The Thuringians had not so very long before 
fought at the Battle of Chalons on the side of the defeated 
Attila, and in their retreat had passed through the country 
of Childeric, perpetrating in their rage the most abominable 
cruelties upon all the Franks they came across or who 
were unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. In an 
old chronicle we find they murdered those sent or taken as 
hostages, and put to death hundreds of young maidens by 
the most fiendish tortures, of which the searing of their 
flesh and breasts with burning torches, and the casting of 
them under the heavy chariots and commissariat waggons, 
so that their limbs and bodies should be crushed to pulp, 
were not the most cruel. But when fleeing from the wrath 
of his tribesmen Childeric appears to have forgotten these 
barbarous deeds of Basinus' people in the past ! 

After an absence of eight years, during which his tribe 
was governed by Egidius, the so-called Roman General, 
Childeric was recalled. But scarcely had he once again 
taken up the reins of government of his people than Basina, 
the wife of his recent protector, appeared upon the scene 
and announced her intention of marrying him. So im- 
pressed was Childeric by her (she having frankly given as her 
reason for following him that he was the most gallant. 



4 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

bravest, and handsomest man she had ever met, and that, 
were she to meet anyone superior nothing would restrain 
her from leaving Childeric in turn for the new lover) that he 
consented to marry her. It should be mentioned that 
several of the chroniclers of those far-away times ascribed 
magical powers to this lady who had (so they also say) been 
the mistress of Childeric while he was accepting the hos- 
pitality and protection of Basinus, her husband ! On the 
night of their marriage, so the legend goes, she persuaded 
Childeric to go into the courtyard of the palace at Tournai 
in order that he might see " the wonderful phantoms which 
would present themselves." 

The King, no doubt wishful to humour her, went in all 
three times. On the first occasion he saw in procession be- 
fore him a long line of unicorns, lions, and leopards, all silent 
and impalpable as shadows, although evidently fighting and 
wrangling together. On the second time, the animals were 
bears and wolves ; these, too, fought and gambolled silently. 
On the third visit to the dimly lit courtyard of his palace, 
Childeric saw multitudes of dogs of great size and wonder- 
ful colours, accompanied by cats that always kept their 
heads turned backwards over their shoulders. From the 
varied characteristics of the animals which had appeared 
thus mysteriously before him, Childeric was told he must 
read the qualities of the races which would ultimately spring 
from his union with Basina. 

In due time Basina gave birth to Clovis, who was 
destined to play so great a part in the world's history of his 
time. Childeric died in 481, and was buried in Tournai, 
to the strange discovery of whose grave and its treasures 
we shall refer later.* 

Clovis, the son of Childeric, came to the throne of his 
people at the age of fifteen, and at the age of twenty he led 
the combined forces of the Salic Franks, who had at first 
inhabited the banks of the Vessel, then taken posses- 
sion of the Island of Betuwe — now a fertile region lying 
between the Waal and the Lek — and finally possessed 
themselves of the district lying between the Scheldt, Maas, 
and lower Rhine. The whole fighting force, at the head of 
which Clovis placed himself, did not probably amount to 
more than 5,000 men. His object was to unite with the 

* P. 121. 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 5 

army of Ragnacar, the Prankish King of Cambrai, in an 
attack upon Siagrius, who was in command of the Roman 
militia at Soissons. The latter was defeated with great 
slaughter near his camp at Nogent. So fell the last pre- 
tender to the authority of Rome in Gaul. 

The policy of the victorious Clovis was to stand well with 
the Bishops and other Christian authorities ; and, indeed, 
until he himself had become a Christian but comparatively 
little is known of his life or exploits. When this came to pass 
Clovis supported the orthodox Christian ecclesiastics, and 
with his tribesmen became their militant ally against the 
Arian heretics, who were even less tolerated by the Bishops 
than the pagans themselves, heresy always being held by the 
Church of Rome as a greater sin than ignorance. Clovis 
cleverly managed to be credited by his people as holding 
their pagan beliefs whilst a Christian himself, and treating 
the Christians well. 

He ultimately married that bright and particular star of 
sainthood among the many saints of blood royal of France, 
Ste. Clotilde, Ste. Clotildis, or Ste. Clotilda, as she is 
variously called. She was one of the daughters of Chil- 
peric, the younger brother of Gundobald of Burgundy. 
Clovis, hearing of the great beauty of Clotilde, sent a 
messenger to discover what manner of woman she really 
might be. The story goes that this ambassador \a.y in wait 
to see Clotilde outside the church door from which she used 
to issue forth giving alms to all the needy. So overcome 
was the ambassador by her great and surpassing loveliness 
and nobility of mien that he fell on his knees, and when she 
extended her hand, supposing that he — being disguised as a 
beggar — like the rest, would receive of her charity, Clovis' 
messenger seized the out-stretched hand, and, turning back 
the wide sleeve, kissed the bare flesh of her wrist. As- 
tonished at this action, Clotilde, on returning home, and 
being given to a belief in portents and omens, sent for the 
man and inquired the reason of his strange conduct. 

Aurelian, for such was the name of Clovis' messenger, 
forthwith disclosed his errand, and drew forth from his 
cloak the royal presents intended for Clotilde should she be 
as beautiful as reported. In the end, with pretended re- 
luctance, she expressed her willingness to become the bride 
of Clovis, and the marriage took place. Perhaps Clotilde 



6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

was not altogether insensible of the credit which would be 
hers if she succeeded in converting her pagan husband to 
the Christian faith. The wedding took place at Soissons in 
493, and Clotilde was allowed free liberty to exercise her 
own religion. 

During her married life with Clovis, Clotilde never ceased 
to implore him to embrace Christianity sincerely, but, the 
chroniclers tell us, without effect, until after the Battle of 
Tolbiac, which was fought in 496. Then, in the heat of the 
battle (so the old story goes), Clovis lifted up his hands on 
high, and invoked the God of his Queen, vowing to become 
a Christian should the victory remain with him. He won 
the battle, and after instruction in the elements of the 
Christian faith by St. Remi himself, was baptized in 
Rheims Cathedral at Christmas in the same year. In 
connection with this event it is recorded that the holy oil 
of anointment was brought by a dove direct from heaven 
to the hands of St. Remi at the moment of baptism.* This 
oil, which had the miraculous gift of reproducing itself 
whenever it was afterwards needed for the coronation of a 
French king, was for many centuries preserved in a golden 
vessel at Rheims. 

From that time onward, notwithstanding he had married 
Clotilde, whose influence could only have been for good, he 
set himself to ensure for his successors the Frankish throne 
and dominions. He stopped at no crime or act of treachery 
to accomplish this, and several neighbouring princes and 
petty kings who stood in the way of his schemes were slain 
or otherwise removed. One by one the descendants of the 
race of Meroveus were put to death or driven into exile, and 
the Frankish power consolidated in one ruler's hands. 
France came to birth, a kingdom, let it be noted, of far 
wider extent than that of to-day. Pursuing his policy of 
friendliness to the ecclesiastics, he gave liberally to the 
Church, and they in return reckoned him as among the 
saints. He was buried in the Church of Ste. Genevieve, 
which he had founded jointly with Clotilde when he had 
removed his court to Paris. 

She survived her husband, and lived to see him succeeded 

* It should be mentioned that one Hincmar, a successor of St. Remi at 
Rheims, is believed to have invented the whole of this story of miracu- 
lously given oil in the ninth century, nearly 400 years later. — C. H. 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 7 

by the son of a concubine whom he had taken before his 
marriage with her. Her own three sons, Chlodomir, 
Childebert, and Chlotaire, reigned at Orleans, Paris, and 
Soissons respectively ; and the children of the first named 
were murdered by their uncles, from whom their mother, 
Clotilde, cut herself off in consequence of their atrocious 
wickedness. She appears to have spent most of the re- 
maining years of her life at Tours in acts of charity and 
other good works, " forgetting that she was a queen, and 
seeming only to remember that there were poor and 
afflicted whom she could help." She died in 545 on June 3, 
and that day is still kept as a festival in the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

On the death of Clovis, Chlotaire took of the Prankish 
kingdom what is practically modern Belgium, with the 
exception of Liege, which fell to the share of Thierry, the 
eldest son. In the course of a few years the entire realm 
came into the possession of Chlotaire, who without scruple 
had murdered his brothers and their sons to enable him to 
possess himself of the whole inheritance. His own son, 
Chramna, rebelled against him, and although the former 
obtained the assistance of the Bretons, he was defeated and 
put to flight. Of this event the chronicler, Gregory of 
Tours, writes : " He (Chramna) took to flight, but whilst 
awaiting ships for himself and his family, he was taken 
captive, and brought before his father. Chlotaire ordered 
that he should be burned alive with his wife and daughters. 
In pursuance of this sentence Chramna was tied on a bench 
in a poor man's cottage with strips of cloth taken from the 
altar of a church hard by, his family being also secured. 
Then the house was set on fire, and the unfortunate captives 
were burnt to death." 

Chlotaire, however, was not destined to long survive this 
last act of diabolical cruelty. He died just a year and a 
day from the commission of the crime, shrieking out in his 
egotism : " What must be the King of all Heavens who 
thus kills the great kings of the earth ?" 

It is interesting to take note of this state of society, in 
which crimes of the most atrocious nature — rapine, murder, 
and destruction — play so great a part. And for this reason. 
Doubtless on account of it arose with great rapidity the 
conventual and monastic systems, where under direct pro- 



8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME I 

tection of the Church some sort of security and safety, if not . 
of property at all events of the person, could be obtained. I{ 
These institutions flourished under monastic rule, and in 
consequence the whole of the Prankish dominions, including, 
of course, the area covered by the present-day Belgium, 
became thickly sown with institutions, in which men and 
women might enjoy a peace, security, and sense of repose 
which was in striking contrast to the turmoil, horror, and 
crime of the outside world which marked the policy of early 
Merovingian rulers. 

On the death of Chlotaire the kingdom which he had 
committed so many crimes to consolidate was once more 
divided. The future of that part which approximates to 
Belgium of to-day is, however, the only portion with which 
we need really concern ourselves. This fell to the share of 
Chilperic I., who reigned from Soissons. He appears to 
have been of a good-natured, easy-going disposition ; much 
better than his father, but not nearly so popular with the 
ecclesiastics of his day on account of the desire he exhibited 
to annul some of the rich bequests made by Chlotaire and 
others to the clergy. He is stated to have incessantly 
grumbled that — " No one really rules save these priests ; see 
how everything goes to the churches." 

In 575 Chilperic was besieged at Tournai by his brother 
Sigebert in consequence of the putting to death of Gales- 
wintha (sister of his wife, Brunehault) whom Fredegonda, 
the wife of Chilperic, had hated and caused to be slain. 
Sigebert was on the road against his brother when St. 
Germain came to him and besought him to pause and not 
seek to slay Chilperic ; saying : " O King Sigebert, if you 
go put aside any aim to kill thy brother. If you do this you 
will be victorious and return alive. But if not, then you 
will fail, and also yourself die. For the Lord hath said, 
' Whoso diggeth a pit for his brother, shall fall into it 
himself.' " 

Sigebert paid no heed to this exhortation and advanced 
against Chilperic and Fredegonda, who were shut up in 
Tournai. The latter devised a scheme characteristic of the 
age by which they might escape. She told off two devoted 
retainers to go to Sigebert's tent and murder him. This 
they did, but were themselves cut to pieces. The death of 
their leader discouraged the besiegers, who retired. Chil- 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 9 

peric came out from Tournai, and afterwards caused his 
brother's body to be magnificently interred at Lambres-sur- 
le-Scarfe. The incidents of the interment are depicted in 
the windows of Tournai cathedral. Chilperic and Frede- 
gonda lived for some years longer, the latter intent upon 
committing a series of almost inconceivably revolting crimes ; 
amongst which the assassination of St. Praetextatus, 
Archbishop of Rouen, whilst he knelt at prayer in the choir 
of the cathedral, stands out as one of the blackest. 

It is impossible to go fully into the details of the 
history of Fredegonda, who was a peasant's daughter 
and whose crimes would have made a Messalina blush, 
or into the romance which attached to the circumstances 
leading up to the murder of the Archbishop. But our 
readers who may wish to understand the period, and to 
read a story which is of almost inconceivably dramatic 
character, cannot do better than obtain the Merovingian 
novels of Thierry. 

Chlotaire II. of Soissons, son of Chilperic I., who became 
King of all the Franks, inherited much of the savage nature 
of his mother, Fredegonda. Unfortunately, his aunt 
Brunehault fell into his hands, and after having her 
fiendishly tortured, he caused her to be torn in pieces by 
wild horses. Chlotaire II. was succeeded in 628 by his two 
sons, Dagobert and Charibert. The former proved on the 
whole the best and most powerful of the Merovingian sove- 
reigns. Pepin of Landen, who, coming from Li6ge, may be 
justly called a Belgian, and Pepin of Heristal, the yet 
more powerful ruler who not only founded the Carlovingian 
family, but conquered Friesland, came from the banks of the 
Meuse. From the last named sprang Charles Martel, who 
in 752 shut up the last feeble descendant of Clovis in the 
then magnificent monastery of St. Bertin (at that time dedi- 
cated to St. Martin), at St. Omer. Here a year later died 
out the race of Childeric, which had had its birth in the 
cloisters of St. Bertin, not far distant from the town of 
Tournai, at which place the family had begun to flourish 
and held its court. 

Pepin le Bref was succeeded by Carlonam in 752, who in 
turn was followed in 770 by his brother Charlemagne, 
destined to become one of the most famous monarchs of 
early Christendom. 



lo THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Under this new monarch a new order was instituted that 
to a certain extent separated the Walloon, Flemish, and 
Dutch provinces from each other, but which in the end was 
the means of consolidating his kingdom. The sections into 
which Charlemagne divided his inheritance— his power and 
supremacy extended over the whole area of the Netherlands 
— were placed under the rule of vassal-princes, dukes, or 
military governors, whose acts and conduct of affairs were 
overlooked periodically by missi dominici, or viceregal judges, 
who travelled about the empire paying what we are told 
were surprise visits of investigation. This arrangement was 
in turn followed by the evolution of the commercial power 
which, new to Flanders, was destined ultimately to have 
the greatest effect upon the future of Europe, and even upon 
civilization itself. 

Charlemagne probably recognized two things : firstly, 
that in those troublous times no one central ruler could 
adequately oversee a great kingdom, so he appointed vassal- 
princes responsible for the rule of their districts or provinces 
answerable to him ; secondly, that commerce could not 
be properly developed under a distant king, but would have 
quicker and more permanent growth under local rulers who, 
though sufficiently strong to resist external and adverse 
influences, would yet not be so powerful as to render them 
independent of local aid, and the support of the sovereign 
lord. From this arrangement arose (amongst others) the 
powerful Counts of Flanders, who acknowledged Charle- 
magne as their sole head, and after him his successors. 

The traders of the Flemish cities had, notwithstanding 
this, already attained some power ; and the Church — as was 
her wont — had secured large areas of the country, which it 
must be frankly admitted were in many cases free from the 
greater and grosser evils of the age. As an example of the 
civil power of the Church, we may instance the great abbey 
of Nivelles, which had under its rule at this period and 
onwards for some centuries no less than fifteen thousand 
families. What this really meant in those early days when 
the country was, comparatively speaking, sparsely populated 
can be well understood. 

The great contests and conflicting interests of the 
immediate future all centred round the question of the 
respective boundaries and spheres of influence of the 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM ii 

Prankish and Germanic peoples. The kings of France of 
the Carlovingian and Capetian houses, with the Counts of 
Flanders as their supporting vassals, were pitted in succeed- 
ing generations against the German rulers, who had as their 
allies the Dukes of Lorraine and Brabant to help them. 
The history of succeeding ages shows how cleverly the 
Flemish Counts used the various fluctuations of fortune and 
the rolling ball of circumstance to aggrandize (at the 
expense of emperor, king, friend or foe) their own province. 
The terrible feuds and intrigues of the Fredegonda and 
Brunehault era were succeeded by more open but not less 
disastrous wars, and the question of supremacy under the 
Carlovingian monarchs assumed quite as acute proportions, 
though the matter was in saner and more powerful hands, 
and the methods less savage and barbaric. 

It was during this period that Flanders was formed. For 
the purposes of consideration the latter may be said to have 
approximated to the greater part of the area now known as 
Belgium, and for this reason attention may be centred on it 
and its vicissitudes rather than on other portions of the 
kingdom of Charlemagne. The great wars in which Flanders 
had played no unimportant part had been carried on in the 
so-called Flandre Gallicante, or the Gallic provinces south of 
the Meuse — in fact, in France itself. In the lower lands the 
state of affairs was decidedly better, and more settled than 
formerly and than elsewhere. 

Soon after Charlemagne's time the cities of Bruges, 
Antwerp, Ghent, and Courtrai amongst others had con- 
siderable commerce, and carried on large manufactures, and 
in course of time they banded themselves together for 
mutual support of trade interests and protection against fire 
and inundation and assault from other nations. 

The comparatively close proximity of these towns to one 
another and to others suggested this arrangement, and it was 
not till later on, when the interests of the towns in question 
began to clash as the development of their manufactures 
and commerce came about, that they in several instances 
became bitterly opposed. In course of time, by means of 
the trade associations or guilds they obtained and carried on 
a kind of Republican or independent form of government. 
And in the ensuing centuries these guilds served frequently 
to check the policy of aggression of the Emperors of Germany, 



12 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Kings of France, and Counts of Brabant and Flanders. 
After Charlemagne died the various vassal-princes and 
dukes whom he had appointed to rule over certain 
divisions of his empire under him, recognizing that their 
appointments were not in reality hereditary, contrived by 
fair means or foul to make their official estates personal 
property. 

On the division or the possessions of Charlemagne 
amongst his grandsons after his death, Flanders fell to the 
share of Charles the Bald of France ; and, with however 
considerable amount of liberty in the management of its 
internal affairs, remained attached to the French crown for 
many centuries. 

The most ancient rulers or earls or counts of Flanders with 
which we are chiefly concerned bore the peculiar title of 
*' Foresters," the reason for which is, so fer as we have been 
able to discover, untraceable. It is, however, distinctly sug- 
gestive of the nature of the country over which they ruled. 
The Flemish historians trace the descent of these " Foresters" 
from Lyderic to Baldwin Bras de Fer, who received the title 
of Count from Charles the Bald. Baldwin was a man of 
astonishing strength, stature and audacity ; and married a 
daughter of Charles named Judith, who had been successively 
the widow of Ethelwulf and of Ethelbald his son. Kings of 
the West Saxons. 

She caused herself to be abducted by Baldwin in 862. Her 
father was greatly incensed by this — as he had been by the 
many scandals which the wayward princess had caused — and 
threatened vengeance upon his daughter. But the Church, 
mindful once again of its material interests, stepped in to 
smooth matters over, and Charles ultimately forgave the 
sinners, and, as a sequel, created Baldwin Count of Flanders. 
It is interestingto note that it was this Judith, wife of Baldwin 
Bras de Fer, who taught Alfred, afterwards one of the 
greatest of English monarchs, to read. The young prince 
had accompanied Ethelwulf, the King of the West Saxons, 
on his pilgrimage to Rome, and the two had visited the 
court of Judith's father, Charles the Bald, on the way back. 

Bras de Fer's successor, Baldwin II., married Alfrith, a 
daughter of Alfred the Great, in 8gi, thus linking English 
with Flemish history. He proved a great and successful 
ruler of Flanders, inflicting at various times heavy defeats 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 13 

upon the Normans, and building the walls of Bruges and 
Ypres. He was the first of a long line of Flemish princes to 
be interred, in grg, in the Church of St. Pierre at Ghent. 

Then came Arnulf, who fought with Otho of Germany over 
the question of the boundaries of Flanders on the Brabant 
frontier. He was succeeded by his son, Baldwin III. (who 
had ruled for him some years prior to his death), in 964. 
This Count reigned only a little over three years, but in that 
time rebuilt and restored several towns and cities which had 
been pillaged and destroyed by the fierce Norman invaders. 
Arnulf II., who came after him, distinguished himself by 
seizing and carrying off the relics of St. Valery from 
St. Valery-sur-Somme to St. Omer. 

In consequence of this act the legend goes that the saint 
himself appeared to Hugues Capet, Duke of Paris, calling 
upon him to undertake the recovery and restoration of the 
relics. In the event of his accomplishing this the saint 
promised that the descendants of Hugues should be Kings 
of France until the seventh generation should have passed 
away. 

An ancient chronicle states: " Hugues readily obeyed the 
command of St. Valery, and by the will of God and his own 
valour so terrified the wrong-doer that he surrendered the 
relics." The story goes on to say that the saint duly per- 
formed his part of the bargain. Arnulf II., known as " The 
Young," in distinction to his father, who had been known as 
** The Old," died in his city of Ghent in 989, and was buried 
in the Church of St. Pierre. 

He was succeeded by his son Baldwin IV., known as 
" Fine Beard." This ruler wrested Valenciennes and the 
Islands of Zealand from the Emperor of Germany in 1006. 
He died in 1036, and was also buried in St. Pierre. His 
son Baldwin V., the Debonnair, who succeeded him, had 
formerly quarrelled with his father, having married Adela, 
daughter of Robert, the French king. He was one of the 
most enterprising and successful rulers in the long line of 
the Counts of Flanders. And all of his four children became 
famous in their several ways. 

Of them the most noted were his daughters, the elder 
Matilda, afterwards wife of William the Conqueror ; and 
Judith, afterwards wife of Tostig, son of Earl Godwin, and 
brother of Harold 1 1 . of England, whom William of Normandy 



14 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

defeated at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. 
Baldwin himself died just a year after that event, and was 
buried at Lille in the choir of the Church of St. Pierre, a 
place of honour reserved for founders. He had been the 
faithful and able guardian of Philippe, the young son of 
Henry, King of France, during his life, which, unhappily for 
that young monarch, did not last as long as the latter's 
minority. 

Concerning Matilda, the Conqueror's wife, there is related 
by an ancient chronicler a pretty piece of scandal and 
gossip which throws a light upon the manners and morals 
of the period. It would appear that one Brintric Mawr, or 
the Handsome, came to her father's court in the capacity 
of an ambassador from Edward the Confessor (possibly 
with relation to the succession of the English throne), 
and Matilda fell in love with Brintric. To her lasting chagrin 
the latter refused her somewhat insistent advances. After 
the Conquest Matilda, remembering the slight put upon 
her, asked from William the grant of all the lands held by 
Brintric for her own ; these, as the Doomsday Book shows, 
she obtained, including amongst them the portion of Devon 
in which Clovelly is situated. At this date Matilda was but 
some fifteen years of age, and one can imagine the amuse- 
ment with which the austere old warrior must have regarded 
this method of his young spouse of taking her revenge upon 
the suitor who had rejected her advances. 

Baldwin V. was succeeded by his son of the same name, 
known as of Mons. He reigned only three years, but with so 
strong and firm a hand that his biographer says — " It was not 
needful for any man to close his house-door at night in order 
to keep out thieves." In those lawless days this cannot be 
considered as other than a great testimony of the firmness 
and wisdom of Baldwin's rule. Robert le Prison is supposed 
by some to have been Baldwin's elder brother, who was 
made to give way to him for diplomatic reasons, and, as 
husband of Richilde, Namur and Hainault became part of 
Flanders. Robert, whose life was a very adventurous and 
piratical one, eventually gained possession of Flanders and 
also lands in Friesland and what is now known as Holland. 

Of Robert le Prison's aUiance with Canute II., King of 
Denmark (afterwards made a saint), and the scheme of 
these two to invade England and take revenge on William 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 15 

the Conqueror for not having paid some money owing to 
Robert we need not concern ourselves. Nor with other 
romantic and adventurous undertakings of him who might 
have been well called the Pirate. He died at Wyendael in 
1093, and was succeeded by his son Robert II., called of 
Jerusalem, who accompanied the famous Godfrey de 
Bouillon to the Holy Land in 1096. He appears in the 
pages of many chroniclers of the period in which he lived, and 
in those of later writers, and is always given the character of 
a great fighter. He survived a desert march when we are 
told — " The hawks of the knights died upon their wrists, and 
the knights themselves sold their armour for a pittance 
rather than bear it with them any further." His was the 
hand supposed to have fired Antioch, when upwards of two 
thousand houses were burned, and he is stated, in company 
with other starving Crusaders, to have eaten the dead 
Saracens ! He was at the taking of the Temple at Jerusalem 
when " soon the floor thereof ran a foot deep in blood." 

He returned from the Holy Land in iioo, and died 
eleven years later in a manner little in keeping with his 
strenuous and romantic career. He fell from his horse 
when on an expedition to attack Theobald of Meux in com- 
pany with the King of France, and was trampled under 
foot by the other horsemen who had been routed. He was 
buried with " great pomp and amid much sorrow by his 
faithful and adoring Flemings" in the church of St. Vedast 
at Arras. 

His son Baldwin VII. succeed him. He was known as a 
la Hache because in war and peace he carried a hatchet, 
and displayed it as an emblem on his banner. 

He was a firm and on the whole just ruler, and a dis- 
penser on occasion of " rough justice." In an old chronicle 
we find that eleven knights had been proved guilty of robbing 
and murdering three Easterlings. Baldwin a la Hache 
summoned them to appear at the great hall of Wyendael, 
and there he himself stood them upon a table with halters 
tied round their several necks and attached to the great 
beams above them. Then, after admonishing them and re- 
minding them of their crime, and that it was their duty to 
protect the weak, he with his own hands pulled away the 
table from underneath their feet, and left them to hang until 
they were dead. 



1 6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Amongst other enterprises this Baldwin engaged in was a 
long struggle with Henry I. of England on behalf of the son 
of his old friend Robert Courthose, named WiUiam Clito— 
i.e., the heir ; Clito being the equivalent of Childe or ^Eth- 
ling. He had failed to obtain his inheritance from Henry. 
Baldwin received William as his guest, and by one of those 
strange turns of the wheel of Fortune the young man 
ultimately became the possessor of his host's dominions. 
The struggle against Henry of England proved unavailing, 
notwithstanding Louis of France, Charles le Bon, Baldwin 
and their great lords, Stephen, Count of Aumale, Aumari 
de Montfort, Count of Evreux, and many other puissant 
nobles were engaged in it. 

Baldwin is supposed, in consequence of an illness, 
which took place at Roulers near Bruges in 1119, to have 
eventually become a monk, and entered the monastery of 
St. Bertin. At all events, he was buried there, and the 
monks claimed him as a ** brother." 

He appointed as his heir to the Countship of Flanders 
one Charles, a cousin, the son of Canute and of Adelais, 
daughter of Robert le Frison. " A very holy man," the old 
chroniclers call him. 

It has often been said, and not without, we think, some 
truth, that unworldliness and impracticability in a ruler is 
often more disastrous than actual wickedness. Charles 
certainly caused through these qualities almost as much 
mischief as most of his more bloodthirsty and irreligious 
forerunners and contemporaries. He was murdered at 
Bruges in the Church of St. Donatian on March 2, 1127, in 
consequence of his having offended the merchants of the 
city, who had stored up quantities of corn in anticipation of 
a scarcity and consequent rise in price much as do the 
speculators in wheat of the present age. Exasperated by 
their Count's order that the granaries should be thrown 
open and the corn distributed, and refused a hearing when 
they appealed to him to rescind the decree, a body of the 
merchants — including, let it be noticed, the provost of St. 
Donatian himself, and the Chancellor of Flanders — came 
upon Charles, whilst he was at the foot of the altar engaged 
in prayer, and slew him. His murder was accomplished 
with greater suddenness and violence even than that of 
Thomas a Becket at Canterbury forty-one years afterwards. 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 17 

It was this unhappy fate which gained for the Count the 
honour of sainthood, and the title of Charles the Good, 
Martyr. 

His, be it said, was a strangely contradictory character, 
which the scanty chroniclers of his age have done little to 
elucidate. Part mystic, part saint, part soldier, he appears 
fitfully across the pages of European history of the time, 
seemingly with the Scriptures in one hand and the sword 
of his ancestors in the other. 

Several claimants to the Countship of Flanders, or 
competitors for it, arose after the death of Charles. The 
most formidable of whom, and one with perhaps on the 
whole the best right, was William Clito, son of Robert 
Courthose, to whom reference has already been made. He 
was not only the grandson of Matilda of Flanders, but had 
the support of Louis the Fat, King of France (1108-1137), 
who was suzerain of the Countship. 

Immediately after the death of Charles the Good, Count 
of Flanders, Louis the Fat, King of France, took steps to 
avenge the death of his vassal, and for this purpose 
appointed William Clito (now related to him by marriage) 
to the Countship. The Flemings rebelled against the 
appointment, favouring the pretensions of Thierry of Alsace. 
William was a strong man, and, moreover, had dealt very 
drastically with the traitors and assassins, causing more 
than a hundred of those concerned in the murder to be 
thrown from the top of the tower at Bruges. 

Thierry, the son of Thierry, Duke of Lorraine, who had 
married Gertrude, third daughter of Robert le Frison, 
invaded Flanders. Many of the Flemings flocked to his 
standard, and it is also supposed that he received considerable 
assistance, at least in money, from the English King, Henry I. 
Thierry was, however, defeated by William, and driven back 
to Alcst, where he shut himself within the town and defied 
his enemy. In driving back a sally of the garrison, William 
Clito clasped the lance of a soldier, and the latter drawing 
the weapon back William's hand was cut. Septic poisoning 
set in, and resulted fatally on August g, 1128. In connec- 
tion with the death of William, so short a time ruler of 
Flanders, a strange story has been handed down. It would 
appear from the Chroniclers that his father, Duke Robert 
Courthose, was in England at Devizes, and somewhere 



1 8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

about the time of the wounding of his son dreamed that he 
himself was wounded in the hand by a lance, so that he 
appeared to lose the use of the limb. When he awoke in 
the morning, he is said to have remarked to those about 
him : " Alas ! my son is dead." The news of William's death, 
we are told, did not reach him till some considerable time 
afterwards. 

From this period, after the unfortunate William Clito had 
been laid to rest in the Abbey of St. Bertin, by the side of 
Robert le Prison, and near the grave of his good and true 
friend Baldwin a la Hache, the history of Flanders becomes 
less complicated and obscure. It should be remembered, too, 
that whilst the counts who ruled over the Flemings and 
those of adjacent districts and duchies were meting out a 
rough and uncoded type of justice, were marrying and 
giving in marriage ; fighting in foreign wars ; losing lands 
and acquiring them; living and dying after their several 
fashions ; the great trading communities of the Low 
Countries were steadily emerging into power, wealth, and 
influence, and gathering to themselves liberties and privi- 
leges of which ensuing rulers found it extremely difficult 
and dangerous to attempt to deprive them. The foundation 
of the liberties of such towns as Ypres, Tournai, Courtrai, 
Lille, Bruges, Ghent (to mention only the most noted), is 
not for certain known. It is even possible that in some 
freedom was contemporaneous with the rise of the town, 
and possessed from the time when the first settlers upon 
the sand dunes and marshlands of Flanders of those 
far-off times gathered together for mutual protection and 
intercourse. Tournai, it is thought, was a city ere the 
Romans under Caesar entered what is now known as 
Belgium. 

It may be said regarding most of the other greater Flemish 
towns that they were by now almost like little Republican 
communities, governed by their own officials, and at times 
exercising a considerable influence upon the external affairs 
of even England and France. 

In the time of Guy de Dampierre, who was ruler in 1280- 
1305, the close alliance in trade relations between Flanders 
and England was plainly indicated in the reply of the States 
with regard to the steps Guy wished to take to avenge his 
imprisonment by the French King, Phillippe III. " My 




^ 



^^ 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 19 

lord," said these worthy merchant princes and traders, "we 
are merchants, and without the coming of the English to 
Flanders and the going of the Flemings into England, we 
cannot traffic to any advantage; let peace, therefore, be 
between your nation and theirs, and then, sustained by 
their assistance, we may despise the injuries already put 
upon us by the King of France, as well as others to which 
he may seek to subject us." Nor were the English un- 
appreciative of the proposed alliance and the common-sense 
way in which the " States " of Flanders had of looking at 
matters. They sent (we are told) no less than 15,000 
pounds weight of silver to assist the Flemings in fortifying 
their castles, and the good understanding existing in com- 
mercial matters between the merchants of England and 
those of Flanders was strengthened thereby. 

• During the Crusades the power and military forces of the 
nobles were, by death, absence, and the expenditure of vast 
sums upon the Crusades themselves, greatly weakened. 
The people began to take matters of government into their 
own hands, appointing their own magistrates, and obtaining 
the highly-valued privileges to erect the belfries which still 
remain as memorials of these early liberties in most of the 
large towns of Belgium to-day. They also acquired the 
right of self-defence, so that when attacked they could 
undertake reprisals without the assent of the Counts, or 
when aggrieved could undertake punitive expeditions 
against other towns. Tournai and Ghent were the first 
cities to erect their stone belfries, which like the great towers 
of Italian cities, symbolized freedom and power. Morning 
and evening their long shadows fell upon the citizens, 
toiling industriously, and upon the palatial houses of the 
merchant princes of the Middle Ages. Beneath this 
shadow — protective in its symbolism — the dwellers un- 
doubtedly lived in and enjoyed more security and peace 
than was in those troublous times to be obtained elsewhere 
on the Continent.* Around the belfries — whose sweet- 
toned chimes in times of peace rang out the hours of the 
fleeting day and slumberous nights, and from whose im- 
posing height in times of war, revolt, or fire clanged down 
the terrifying and arresting notes of the alarm bells, great 
hives of men came into being ; the toilers in which became 
* " Histoire de 1' Architecture en Belgique." 



20 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

wealthy and powerful, setting examples in their manufactures, 
methods of trade, and love of liberty, afterwards followed 
by Europe, and by which England herself profited not a 
little. Of the subsequent subjection of the Netherlands by 
Philip II. of Spain it may be remarked that had the in- 
habitants of the various great cities showed solidarity and 
fought side by side in the common cause, not all the power 
of the then powerful Spanish dominions could have accom- 
plished what was brought to pass in regard to the over- 
running of the country, and the infliction of the diabolical 
cruelties by which the inhabitants were decimated. 

From the mists of war and bloodshed, out of the incred- 
ible cruelties of the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands, 
emerged at length phoenix-like from the ashes something 
of the old spirit and free institutions. But although this 
was so the cities had lost for ever much of their former 
prosperity and power.* 

Interesting as are the lives and romantic adventures of 
the Counts of Flanders who succeeded Thierry of Alsace, 
when crusading, warring against their neighbours, or when 
espousing the cause of their suzerains, there is no space to 
recount them in detail. A more or less abbreviated account 
of the names and claims of these must suffice us until that 
period when the great Burgundian inheritance (of which 
Flanders had by reason of the want of an heir male to the 
house of Brabant become a part) was split up. 

Philippe, the son of Thierry and Sybilla of Anjou succeeded 
his father in 1168, and after "Taking the Cross" in the 
church of St. Pierre at Ghent went twice along the 
" Crusaders' road " to the assistance of his cousin, the King 
of Jerusalem. It should be noted that it was during the 
progress of his first voyage that Philippe changed the arms 
hitherto borne by the Counts of Flanders for a shield 
or, with a lion rampant sable. Philippe died before Ptole- 
mais, on July 11, iigi, and was afterwards buried in the 
famous Cistercian Abbey of Clairvaux, in Champagne. He 
was succeeded by Baldwin VIII., who reigned only about 
three years in very troublous times. He was harassed by 
several competitors for the Countship, and died at Mons in 
1194, where he lies buried in the Church of St. Waltruda. 
He added the province of Hainault to Flanders, and it was 
* See Motley's " Rise of the Dutch Republic." 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 21 

to the greater inheritance that his son Baldwin IX. 
succeeded. This prince joined the Fourth Crusade in 1201, 
was chosen Emperor of the East three years later, and 
about a year afterwards suddenly vanished from human 
sight in a way that was almost more remarkable than 
that which characterized the disappearance of Sebastian 
of Portugal after the Battle of Alcazarquivir, in Africa, on 
August 4, 1578. Baldwin of Flanders was last seen on the 
battlefield, or just afterwards, and then never more. 

He was succeeded by his daughter Jeanne, who was 
married to Fernand of Portugal. The latter refused to 
assist Philip Augustus in his scheme for the invasion of 
England and as a consequence incurred Philip's wrath. 
Fernand allied himself to the German Emperor and King 
John of England, and concerted an attack upon France 
which promised well. Philip Augustus sent a fleet to the 
Flemish coast, and this was attacked at Damme by the 
English fleet, and defeated. On land, however, Philip 
Augustus was more successful. Ypres, Courtrai, and 
Ghent were all in turn captured ; and then, marching 
southwards, Philip Augustus encountered the forces of the 
Emperor, amounting in all to some 150,000 men, on July 
27, 1214, at Bouvignes, between Lille and Tournai. After 
a most bloody battle Philip was victorious, capturing, 
amongst other important allies of the Emperor, Fernand 
himself and William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury. After 
fourteen years' imprisonment Fernand was released, but he 
only survived three or four years, and died in 1232. Jeanne, 
his widow, married a second time Thomas of Savoy. She 
died in 1244, and, leaving no child, was succeeded by her 
sister Margaret. The latter, who died in 1280, ruled 
Flanders with her two husbands, Bouchard d'Avesnes, and 
William de Bourbon, Lord of Dampierre. She was 
succeeded by her son, William de Dampierre, a most 
unfortunate prince. He reigned three years only, and was 
succeeded by Guy de Dampierre. The latter was even 
more unfortunate. He was a great friend of Edward I. of 
England ; but the latter left him to the tender mercies of 
Philippe le Bel of France, who captured and imprisoned him 
at Compiegne, where he died in 1305. It was this Philippe 
of France who treated the citizens of Bruges so harshly that 
they revolted, and, attacking the French garrison, drove 



22 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

them out of the city, and Jacques de Chatillon, the French 
governor, back to his master in France. The latter invaded 
Flanders with " all the flower of French chivalry and an 
immense foUowingof common soldiers," but was disastrously 
defeated near Courtrai. 

Re-entering the province, he succeeded in defeating the 
Flemings at Mons-en-Puelle, near Lille. But, notwith- 
standing the triumph of his arms, ultimately thought it 
policy to acknowledge the succession of Guy de Dampierre's 
son Robert as Lord of Flanders. The latter, a great and 
notable warrior, was succeeded by his son Louis. 

It was under the rule of this prince that Flanders was 
the scene of the events which led to the rise of Jacques von 
Artevelde. Louis was slain at the famous Battle of Crecy, 
and was succeeded by his son, Louis de Maele, whose 
daughter Marguerite, by marrying Philippe, Duke of 
Burgundy, was the means of uniting Flanders to Burgundy 
in 1384. This was a branch of the ruling house of France, 
and at the beginning of the fifteenth century all the Nether- 
lands provinces were united by inheritance, marriage, treaty, 
or purchase under the authority of the Dukes of Burgundy, 
who had become so powerful that they were able to defy the 
authority of the Kings of France and Emperors of Germany 
alike. 

The real aim of the Burgundian Dukes at this period and 
onwards was the establishment of a State that should be 
independent of both France and Germany, and thus hold the 
balance of power between the undying rivalries of the reign- 
ing Kings and Emperors. The great obstacle to this scheme 
and the despotism of the Dukes was the democratic and 
municipal spirit of the great trading towns of Flanders — 
Ghent, Bruges, Li^ge, for example. It was just this spirit 
that the wily Louis XI. of France sought to foster and turn to 
his own uses. Readers of history and historical romance 
will recollect how at last Louis' life was endangered by his 
schemes when the premature revolt broke out at Li6ge 
against Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, whose 
guest at that particular moment Louis was at the fortress of 
Peronne.* 

V Charles the Bold was killed at the battle of Nancy on 

January 5, 1477, and having no son it was the scheme of 

* See " Quentin Durward," by Sir Walter Scott. 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 23 

the French King that Charles's daughter Mary should marry 
into the royal family of France, by which plan the great 
Duchy would, of course, have become absorbed. 

On the death of Charles the Bold the Burgundian 
inheritance was dismembered, and Louis XL, finding his 
scheme to marry Mary into his family frustrated, seized 
upon those territories of the dead Duke which lay within the 
French border, and had been held by him of the French 
Crown, under the excuse that they were a male fief, and thus, 
for lack of heirs male, reverted to the French Crown. Mary 
ultimately married the Emperor Maximilian of Austria, one 
of the most powerful rulers of the time ; and thus Flanders 
(with Burgundy) passed to the house of Habsburg. 

In the year 1494 Maximilian gave the Duchy and the whole 
of the Netherlands to his son Philip, at whose death in 1507 
Flanders fell to Charles V. of Austria, the grandson of 
Maximilian. Charles was by birth a Fleming, having been 
born in Ghent in 1500. He proved a great ruler, and 
generally throughout his reign favoured the Netherlands, the 
chief cities of which, in return for his respect of their liberties, 
contributed largely and generously towards the expenses of 
the wars in which the Emperor engaged. Once more a 
Burgundian ruler, in the person of this great Emperor 
Charles V. of Austria, aimed at setting up a vast and 
despotic power which should hold in check, not only the 
pretensions of Germany, but also those of France. The 
centre of the proposed balance of power was shifted a little 
eastward, that was all. 

Notwithstanding his great gifts, his immense resources 
and possessions, and his vast ambition, Charles failed in his 
object. He neither checked the advances of France nor 
those more subtle forces of the Reformation which were 
aiming a deadly blow at despotism ; nor did he succeed in 
bringing under his rule the independent princes of Germany. 
In the end he abdicated, worn out, 'tis said, by disillusion- 
ment and the strain of his unsuccessful policy. He sought, 
as did so many of his kind in those troublous days, rest 
within a monastery in 1555, and died in Spain. 

When, afterwards, division came to be made of the vast 
possessions of Charles V., of whom one writer declares : 
" Half the world belonged to him, and yet he was weary of 
it all," what we now know as Belgium and Holland fell to 



24 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the share of his son, the famous Philip II. of Spain, the 
husband of Mary of England and deadly enemy of Eliza- 
beth. 

Philip was a much less wise ruler than his father, and 
much less favourable to the claims and liberties of the 
Netherlands. The free cities chafed and rebelled against his 
would-be despotism. The Reformation, too, had made 
great strides in the Low Countries, and Philip was a bigot 
of the harshest type. Indeed, he is said to have declared 
that he would rather wipe out the population of his Nether- 
lands possessions than rule over a heretical people. He was 
bent upon stamping out Protestantism, and to do this the 
number of Roman Catholic officials, priests and prelates in 
Flanders was greatly increased, and the Inquisition in its 
cruellest form set up. The first result was discontent ; then 
open revolt. 

* Flanders, as a whole, declared against the Spanish rule 
and joined the " Pacification of Ghent " in 1576. To enable 
the rebels to be more easily crushed Margaret of Parma, 
Philip's half-sister, was removed from her position of regent 
over the Flemish provinces, and the infamous Duke of Alva 
was appointed in her place. The Duke commenced a reign 
of terror in Brussels, arresting two of the most popular of 
the native nobles — Lamoral, Count Egmont, and Philip de 
Montmorency, Count Hoorn. These were speedily executed, 
and hundreds of the citizens of Brussels and other large 
towns were put to death. Alva's diabolical cruelties, ** by 
which the countryside was made one vast charnel-house, 
and gibbets were as thick as trees," roused the people to a 
titanic struggle against the Spaniards, which, though lengthy, 
was in the end successful.* The northern States of the 
Netherlands obtained their freedom under the title of the 
Seven Provinces, and established the Dutch Republic. The 
southern provinces with Flanders submitted to Alexander 
Farnese, Duke of Parma, to whose moderation and diplomacy 
this result must be ascribed. Philip thus succeeded in 
rooting out Protestantism in the southern provinces and 
Flanders, but the northern provinces maintained their 
religious as well as gained their political freedom. 

Shortly before his death Philip, finding his Flanders 
possessions difficult to control, gave what is now Belgium 
* See Motley's " Rise of the Dutch Republic." 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 25 

as a marriage portion to his daughter, the Infanta Isabella, 
who in 1598 married the Archduke Albert of Austria. Thus 
this part of Europe once more passed to the house of 
Habsburg. It soon, however, again became a possession of 
the Spanish crown. In the seventeenth century the country 
suffered with the decline of Spanish power, and also from 
the terrible wars with France and Holland, and at the 
Treaty of the Pyrenees, November 7, 1659, a considerable 
extent of Spanish territory, and the provinces of Thionville 
and Artois, became incorporated with France. In 1668 
France acquired, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (May 2), 
other important possessions, including the fortress of Lille. 
About ten years later some of them were restored. Shortly 
afterwards, however, Valenciennes, Cambrai, Nieuport, and 
other towns were taken from Belgium, and only restored 
in part twenty years later at the Peace of Ryswick, 
September 20, 1697. 

The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) brought 
great hardships upon Belgium and the Netherlands. The 
field of battle was transferred after Blenheim from Germany 
to the Low Countries, and here were fought the famous 
engagements of Oudenarde and Ramillies. By the Treaty 
of Radstadt, March 6, 1714, when the great and disastrous 
war was ended, the Netherlands, and therefore Belgium, 
was once more given to Austria. 

The country, however, was not destined to enjoy peace 
for any long period, for the War of the Austrian Succession 
broke out, and Belgium once more became a pawn in the 
game. For a period of four years, from the outbreak of the 
war to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, France over- 
ran and conquered almost the whole of the country, but at 
the Peace things were adjusted almost as before, and Austria 
once again took possession. 

It must be admitted that on the whole the Austrian rule 
of the country from the time of Charles V. compares very 
favourably with that of Spain ; and no ruler was wiser, more 
pacific and more beloved of the Austrian house than the 
Empress Maria-Theresa. Her successor, the Emperor 
Joseph II., was less happy in his methods, though possibly 
equally well-intentioned. He somehow or other offended 
the religious and other scruples of his Flemish subjects, 
with the result that revolts occured. He died in 1790, and 



26 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

his successor, Leopold IL of Austria, had scarcely succeeded 
in repressing the discontent when Belgium, invaded by the 
French Revolutionary forces, once more became a battle- 
field. 

The Revolutionary forces and then those of the Republic 
overran the country, and met with such success that 
Belgium was first elevated into the position of a separate 
Republic, with the Austrian yoke thrown off, and afterwards 
formally made over by Austria to France by the Treaties of 
Campo Formio and Lunneville. It was ultimately divided 
into departments and incorporated with the Empire of 
Napoleon Bonaparte. At the fall of the latter the country 
was placed once more under Austrian rule, but this not 
proving a success, by the Congress of Vienna the southern 
provinces constituting Belgium were united with the 
northern into a single kingdom of the Netherlands, under 
the rule of William, Prince of Orange, known as William I., 
King of the Netherlands. 

The fact that in race and more especially in religion the 
two bodies now united were diametrically opposed was not 
promising for unity, and the new kingdom thus formed did 
not endure. 

The Belgian portion of William's subjects objected to 
Dutch rule and Dutch customs, and became possessed of 
the idea that Belgium was being made subservient to 
Holland. One grievance in particular, which appears to 
have precipitated the agitation for separation, was the fact 
(as asserted by Belgium) that for its wealth and population 
it was inadequately represented in the Chamber of Deputies. 
The feeling was also expressed that the offices of state were 
given much more frequently to the Dutch than to the 
Belgians. Concessions, it is true, were from time to time 
somewhat ungraciously made ; but the Belgians remained 
dissatisfied and discontented. This feeling of antagonism 
culminated in 1830, when it was shown by the Belgian 
deputies that the civil official classes were Dutch by a pre- 
ponderance of about ten to one, whilst at the War Office in 
important posts the disproportion was about thirty to one. 
The Belgian Press took the matter up strongly ; then there 
followed prosecutions of editors, publishers, journalists, 
prominent officials ; and popular leaders of the Pan- 
Belgian movement were exiled by the Netherlands Govern- 




. ^ I 



THE STORY OF BELGIUM 27 

ment, or voluntarily fled the country to France, from whence 
they engineered the movement for the formation of Belgium 
into a separate kingdom. 

In July of the same year there came the Revolution in 
Paris and the overthrow of Charles X. On August 25, a 
performance was given at the Theatre du Monnaie, Brussels, 
of the " La Muette de Portici," which tells the story of the 
revolt of Naples under the leadership of Masaniello. A riot 
followed, the Government journal offices were attacked and 
pillaged, and a redress of the grievances of Belgians de- 
manded. The authorities of the Hague temporized, 
promised consideration, but actually did little, and a 
movement that commenced in a riot ended in a revolution. 
In September there were four days of fierce fighting in the 
streets of Brussels, and the Dutch soldiery were beaten 
and compelled to retreat. The appointment of a provisional 
government was at once proceeded with. Both Great 
Britain and France intervened, and after negotiations 
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was elected King of the 
Belgians, and made his triumphal entry into Brussels, the 
capital of the new kingdom, on July ig, 1831. The King of 
Holland still sought to rule Belgium, and war broke out on 
August 3. France sent 50,000 troops to the aid of the 
Belgians. The quarrel between the Netherlands and 
Belgium continued spasmodically until after a conference of 
the Powers held in London in 1839 although Holland had 
been prevailed upon to recognize the independence of 
Belgium by the pressure of the Powers, more especially 
that of Great Britain, in 1832. 

Since that period Belgium has been governed with a full 
recognition on the part of her rulers of the liberties of the 
people, and with a Constitution modelled very considerably 
upon the lines of our own. 

Leopold I. had a long and prosperous reign, and it is a 
notable fact that when in 1848 Europe was convulsed by 
revolutions, his was one of the few Continental thrones which 
remained unshaken. He was the uncle, and in her early 
years the adviser, of Queen Victoria, and as a truly con- 
stitutional monarch, in 1848, when revolution was rife and 
there were signs of discontent amongst a section of his own 
people, he came to the Assembly, and declared that he had 
been called to the throne of Belgium by the voice of the 



28 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

people, and should they bid him go he would do so. He 
remained firm upon his throne when those of other monarchs, 
apparently more powerful than he, were tottering. 

He was succeeded in 1865 by his son (the late King of 
the Belgians), Leopold IL, who, on August 22, 1853, had 
married the Princess Marie Henriette, daughter of the j 
Archduke Joseph of Austria. He became in 1885 the 
sovereign of the Congo Free State, the maladministration 
of which brought obloquy upon the King and his officials. 
He died on December 17, igog, and was succeeded by his 
nephew, the present King, Albert, who married Elizabeth, 
Duchess of Bavaria, in igoo. 

Under her three kings, since she has become a separate 
State, Belgium has prospered enormously. In Art, Trade, 
Commerce, and Manufactures she has taken and won for 
herself an important place in the ranks of European nations ; 
quite, let it be added, out of proportion to her area and 
population. Before her, unless the menacing shadow of 
the German Eagle causes her material prosperity to be at 
first overcast, and then herself to be absorbed, the future is 
bright. The motto of Belgium — ** L'Union fait la Force," 
— has hitherto proved apposite and true, and it may yet 
serve her once again in good stead. 



CHAPTER II 

THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 

AFTER several sojourns in Belgium, and an acquain- 
tance more or less intimate with its people, one is 
compelled to admit that in the past at least the latter 
have met with scant justice at the hands of English journal- 
ists, writers, and tourists. More especially is this remark 
true concerning the last named. It is so much more easy to 
criticize than to admire a Continental people : for criticism 
is a comparatively easy matter, and is often based upon 
ignorance, while appreciation can only come when one 
comprehends and possesses a sympathy with the aims and 
objects, customs and life, of the people. 

The average tourist sees little or nothing of the real life 
of Belgium, nor does he get in touch with the modes of 
thought which prevail, nor the intimate life of the people at 
large. For many Ostend, Bruges, and Ghent (the two latter 
often voted slow and uninteresting), Brussels, Antwerp, the 
Valley of the Meuse, and perhaps Liege, comprise, and often 
more than comprise, the ground covered, and even that is 
done at too rapid a rate to enable the travellers to acquire 
any real knowledge of the land or its people. 

Ostend is no more Belgium than Monte Carlo is France. 
Indeed, we should be inclined to say that the " vicious, 
brilliant, fascinating and cosmopolitan watering-place " is 
less so. The true and most strenuous life of Belgium is lived ' 
in the solid, old-time mansions of the great towns, in the 
manufactories, which have made the country prosperous in 
the past as they do in the present ; in the coal-mines of 
" the Borinage," the steel and iron foundries of the 
Charleroi district ; in the fields of the fertile valleys such as 
those of the Meuse, Sambre, Scheldt and Lys ; on the plains 

29 



30 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

of West Flanders ; and amid the beautiful forests of the 
Ardennes. In these one finds the ever varied types which 
go together to the making of a nation — fascinating studies 
of complicated humanity well worth the time which is 
necessary to comprehension. 

In considering some of the more common types of the 
men of the towns, it may not be out of place to commence 
with those gardiens de la paix, the policemen. We have 
seen in our own and in Parisian comic papers jokes regard- 
ing the size and conduct of the Belgian policeman, which in 
our opinion, after watching them in the execution of their 
duty, and having recourse to them in times of difficulty or 
embarrassment, are for the most part totally undeserved. 
As a general rule, he is like his brother of the Paris streets, 
urbane, gentle and courteous to women and children, and 
brave in the execution of his often perilous duties. He is 
not, we admit, the same impressive, not to say massive, 
individual that '* Robert " in London is — the Belgians are 
a smaller race — but he is wonderfully active and courageous. 
We have heard it stated by a high official that London 
has the least dangerous and ruffianly type of criminals of 
any capital city in Europe. We are of the opinion that 
Brussels has some of the worst type of all. Desperate 
criminals, who have fled from Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and 
other lesser Continental cities reinforce those of native birth. 
Most, too, of the members of the criminal class in Brussels 
carry revolvers and formidable knives as a general rule, and 
do not hesitate to use them on very slight provocation, or 
when in danger of arrest. The " Apaches " of Brussels are 
not less desperate and stealthy desperadoes than those of 
Paris, and scarcely a month passes without some deadly affray 
being reported as having taken place between couples or 
bands of these and the police of the Belgian capital and 
large manufacturing towns. 

Brussels — " Paris in little," as it has been called — is literally 
a refuge for those who flee from justice. But it speaks well 
for the police that criminals of the worst and most desperate 
type seldom long escape, and that murders, burglaries, and 
similar crimes remain unsolved far less frequently than in 
London. 

The Brussels policeman, too, is often a remarkably well- 
trained athlete, and to see him stop a runaway horse in one 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 31 

or other of the parks where the animal has had an oppor- 
tunity to bolt, with few obstacles in the way to arrest its 
progress, is a wonderful sight. Indeed, if any certificate of 
courage were required the Brussels policeman is, we assert 
after a considerable amount of experience and personal 
observation, fully entitled to it. 

It must not be forgotten in arriving at any estimate of a 
comparative nature that his chief work is less to control 
traffic (which is so important an item of duty with his 
counterpart in London) or give information, than to watch 
vigilantly the members of the criminal class who literally 
swarm in Brussels, as we have already indicated, are 
of a far more dangerous type than are those in London. 
He is, however, always ready to afford strangers information 
so far as his ability allows; but his miscellaneous know- 
ledge of streets, pubHc buildings, cab fares, and other 
general matters cannot usually, we think, be compared 
with that of the average London policeman or Parisian 
gendarme. 

Another official with whom almost everyone who visits 
Belgium comes more or less in contact is the postman. We 
are bound to confess that when wandering in the more out- 
of-the-way districts of Belgium we have not found the 
postal arrangements, at all events regarding poste restante 
letters, invariably satisfactory. Too often, indeed, there 
seems to be an indifference on the part of the postal 
officials to the prompt and safe delivery of communications 
and parcels lying " to be called for." But regarding the 
postman there is little but praise to be given. He seems 
possessed of but one idea, his work, which is the safe 
carriage and accurate delivery of the letters and packets 
entrusted to his care. For him it has been said, and we 
think justly, the most important thing upon these are not 
the addresses, but the names of the people for whom they 
are intended ; and the postman will take an infinitude of 
trouble to see that the right person ultimately receives the 
missive or parcel. As is the case with his English and 
French prototypes, the Brussels postman is generally pos- 
sessed of an astounding memory ; and the mere mention of 
a name, when any question as to identity or the actual 
person for whom a letter or other communication is intended, 
at the sorting tables of the Bureau Central des Postes, 



32 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



I 



which stands in the sunny open Place de la Monnaie, is. 
generally sufficient to ensure some postman or other giving! 
the necessary information. He is usually an optimist, or at all 
events looks as though he were, for he has a pleasant smile 
for everyone ; we have known him beam after climbing with 
a registered letter {lettre chargee) up five flights of stairs in 
one of the new blocks of flats which of recent times have 
been erected where once stood quaint, old, and interesting 
houses in the neighbourhood of the Porte de Namur. Few, 
we fancy, really grudge him the little tip for which he looks 
when delivering so important a communication as a regis- 
tered letter, which to him at least appears to exude a 
promise of wealth or at least a present of value for the 
fortunate recipient. 

One of the customs which places an immense burden upon 
the postmen of Brussels and the staff of the Bureau des 
Postes is that of sending to all one's friends a visiting card 
on New Year's Day. A recent estimate states that nearly 
three millions and a half extra letters are in consequence of 
this practice posted and delivered in the capital alone. 
And few — save those posted without addresses, or refused 
by careful addressees because the senders have omitted to 
stamp them — statistics show, fail to reach their proper 
destination promptly. 

The organization of the Posts and Telegraphs in Brussels 
strikes the stranger as admirable. Not only are there the 
usual facilities of street boxes at prominent points, but in 
the electric cars, which often are used to transport the post- 
man from the Bureau Central to outlying districts, are 
letter-boxes into which one may place an express letter for 
a fee of twenty-five centimes for delivery, not only in the 
city and environs, but in any part of Belgium. The uniform 
charge of twenty-five centimes for whatever place the letter 
may be intended within the Kingdom of Belgium has 
doubtless done much to foster the custom of dispatching 
communications of any importance or urgency by this 
means. These boxes are cleared and the contents examined 
and sorted at the principal points d'arret along the tram 
routes, and the contents promptly distributed and dis- 
patched. 

There is one thing which all foreign residents and tourists 
should for their own comfort and reputation for generosity 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 33 

learn as speedily as possible. Most officials connected with 
the railways, or tramways, particularly the guards, collec- 
tors, and issuers of tickets, known as receveurs, look for 
little tips for services rendered. It is a national custom, 
and, however much the parsimonious foreigner may object 
to it from either motives of economy or from principle, it is 
wise to fall in with the almost universal practice. In 
Brussels, at all events, we have noticed that, except with 
very poor people using the trams or few remaining horse 
omnibuses, it is comparatively seldom the " fare " will take 
from the collector the five-centime piece (halfpenny) change 
which is often due on a tram fare. 

As a rule the receveuv or collector is a pleasant-mannered 
official with perhaps a slight tendency to correct the alien in 
his or her pronunciation of streets and places at which he 
or she wishes to alight. 

The American girl tourist (and the English, too) provide 
many occasions for these free lessons in French pronuncia- 
tion. And sometimes they afford amusement to the 
occupants of the car. An American girl a short time ago, 
in company with her mother, wishing to proceed from the 
Bourse to the Rue de Pepin near the Porte de Namur, 
demanded of the receveuYy " Do pour la Porte de Namoor." 

" Bien, Mademoiselle, deux Porte de Namur," was the 
reply. " Nong," exclaimed the young lady, " Porte de 
Namoor, Porte de Namoor." 

*' Mais oui. Mademoiselle," replied the man, smiling. " Je 
vous comprend, parfaitement," at which several of the 
occupants of the car smiled, " deux places Porte de Namur." 

** Nong, nong, vous n'avey pas raisen," was the angry 
reply. Then the young lady, turning to her mother, said, 
** Mommer, I guess this man must be a Walloon. He 
doesn't catch on to my French." 

Whether he understood the girl's " English " we cannot 
say, but not a smile other than of benevolence irradiated his 
countenance as he handed the speaker two strip tickets 
and change. But others in the car smiled broadly enough 
at the Hnguistic duel which had taken place. " Mommer " 
looked vexed, and glanced contemptuously at the receveuv. 

The cockers of Belgian cities, and Brussels in particular, 
strike us as being neither much better nor much worse than 
their brother cabbies in other lands. They are not less ex- 



34 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

tortionate, so far at least as foreigners are concerned, though 
on the whole less abusive, than the cabbies of London and 
English seaside watering-places. They are, perhaps, less 
good-mannered than those of Vienna. It is not easy for the 
cocher, of whatever nationality, eager to make hay whilst the 
sun shines, when asked what his charge is, to resist the 
temptation to double his proper fare. And over and over 
again when a gendarme has been summoned, or has been 
attracted by a dispute, the defence is, ** Madame or Monsieur 
(as the case may be) asked me what I wanted !" A disin- 
genuous way of stating the case which does not, of course, 
impose upon the official. Cab fares are elastic things, and 
one should avoid consulting the hotel porter upon the 
subject. He, worthy man, is torn by two distinct and con- 
flicting emotions. The one a desire not to offend the cab- 
man by a too strict adherence to the "tariff," and thus 
perhaps lead to his not recommending the hotel ; the other 
to stand well with the just arrived guest, and to prove to 
him that he, the porter, is a smart fellow who will suffer no 
client to be cheated, and knows what he is up to. 

Some amusing contretemps often occur with foreigners 
who attempt to give directions to the cabmen in their own 
tongue. One fine hot day in July in Antwerp a somewhat 
pompous fellow-countryman of our own, who apparently 
rather prided himself upon his knowledge of French, 
desiring to drive from the Place Verte to the Gare 
Centrale, calmly told the smiling cocher he had hailed, " Je 
veux aller a la Gare Centrale, Chemin d'Enfer." Adding, 
" Depechez-vous." The man, smiling broadly, but catch- 
ing his meaning, whipped up his horse and drove off. In 
due time they arrived at the Gare Centrale. The "fare" 
alighted, handed the perspiring cocher (who had driven at an 
unusual rate, and was now mopping his round tanned face 
with a red handkerchief of large dimensions) the legal fare 
or less. The cocher remonstrated, and extracted a further 
sum of twenty-five centimes, the Englishman protesting 
volubly as he hastened off to catch the train for Brussels. 
Just as he was about to vanish in the stone doorway the 
cocher called out after him in French, ** You asked me to go 
to the railway to Hell. I only wish I could drive you there !" 
A parting shot the true inwardness of which we fear escaped 
the notice of the vanishing tourist. 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM i,s 

Unlike those of our own land, the railway officials in 
Belgium are servants and officers of the State, and are 
therefore accustomed to a certain amount of deference and 
consideration which is seldom paid to their British proto- 
types. It is the ignorance of this fact that causes much of 
the friction which so frequently occurs at railway stations, not 
only in Belgium but on the Continent generally, between the 
officials, and perturbed and ignorant travellers. 

The chef de la gave, resplendent in a uniform, in which red 
plays a prominent part and glittering with gold lace, is not 
there for the purpose of informing excited or other tourists 
what time their train starts, or from what platform. He is 
there merely to control the traffic and look imposing. He 
is apt to resent the assumption that he is a human time-table, 
and that it is his duty to give travellers information on all 
sorts of subjects connected more or less with the railway 
system, to find lost luggage, or settle a dispute with the 
commissionnaire, or porter. And yet we have seen him 
appealed to on all these and many other points without any 
preliminary apology for so doing on the part of the anxious 
inquirers. Usually he has at command a withering kind of 
look which will check all save the most obtuse or hardened 
seeker after information. But if approached with politeness, 
and with a deference to his position as chef de la gave, it is 
seldom the inquirer will meet with a rebuff. The porters — 
as we understand them — employed by the railways are com- 
paratively few. They have no duties to perform for the 
travelling public other than seeing that the luggage is placed 
in the van, and taken out at its destination. They are not 
there for the purpose of transporting it along the platform 
from or to the buses or cabs. This may or may not be an 
advantage. Most English tourists, accustomed to the 
services of the railway porters, are, we fancy, inclined to 
think the latter. The true porters, who are at railway 
stations for the assistance of travellers with luggage, are a 
respectable band of men, generally in blue linen trousers and 
garments like a countryman's smock, and wearing a metal 
disc or badge, either on their arms or in their peaked caps. 
They are anxious and even eager to assist by carrying luggage 
and engaging cabs. They have, however, no authority over 
the baggage or in the station, and cannot take it from the vans 
or claim it before it has been identified by the railway porters. 



36 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Their charges are somewhat high, compared with the usual 
tip of twopence or threepence expected by their prototypes 
at home. But to employ them is usually a politic act. 
Time is undoubtedly often saved, and officials seem to be more 
easily placated as regards early admission to the departure 
platform when a commissionnaire is seeing to one's luggage. 

We remember an American lady who, although she arrived 
rather late at a certain station, knowing doubtless that a 
commissionnaire would probably charge half a franc to carry 
her small valise and a hand-bag, made up her mind to save 
the tip by transporting these things herself. As she 
expressed it (when a commissionnaire perhaps rather urgently 
pressed his services upon her) she was going " to shift the 
things herself." She did so. There was some little bother 
at the ticket barrier, and the parsimonious lady lost the 
Ostend-Dover express in consequence. She saved her 
50 centimes, but incurred a cab fare and hotel bill probably 
amounting to ten or twelve francs. She was loud in her 
denunciations of the "porters " — i.e.y railway officials — who 
(as she put it) " stood around like gaping idiots, and allowed 
me to lose my train." But the latter, some of whom under- 
stood her remarks, smiled blandly with a secret and unholy 
satisfaction at her fate. That was all. 

Before we leave a consideration of the more or less official 
classes who bulk largely in the eyes of alien travellers, a 
word or two concerning military officers ; who, after con- 
siderable experience of them, one is bound to say are far 
pleasanter and more sociable than their brothers in Germany. 
The Belgian officer, the policeman, and the common 
soldiers, one would judge from the comic (?) papers of 
their own land and of neighbouring countries, occupy the 
unenviable position of butts for cheap wit, that in former 
times was devoted in our own land to mothers-in-law, 
temperance folk, and Jews. As a general rule the officer is 
a soldier and a gentleman. He is interested and well-versed 
in his profession, and there is yet an absence of " side " in 
dealing with civilians which is pleasant after, say, one's 
experiences in Berlin, Moscow, and elsewhere on the 
Continent. The absence of side and hauteur may possibly 
be in a measure accounted for by the fact that a very large 
number of the officers of all save such crack regiments as 
the Guides, Lancers, and Grenadiers, have themselves come 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 37 

from the people. Those of noble birth wishing to serve in 
the army chiefly enter the regiments we have specified, and 
the Carabiniers. The Guides are the " crack " one of the 
lot. Not a few of the officers of other regiments have risen 
from the position of sous officiers. The pay in the Belgian 
army is not sufficient to attract men of position per se, and 
the chances of glory or promotion are not great, so one has 
to fall back upon the supposition that it is chiefly patriotism 
which causes men to remain in the army after their term of 
compulsory service. 

It is admitted by those who know him that the Belgian 
officer is a pleasant-mannered, genial fellow as a rule, who 
treats his men as human beings rather than mere machines, 
and who has a reputation for looking well after their comfort 
and attending promptly to any grievances. Belgium has 
enjoyed peace for so long a period that it is difficult for any 
save experts to pass an opinion as to the value of the very 
considerable army she maintains in the event of the country 
being embroiled in a European war. Belgium has been 
called the " Battlefield of Europe," and it is not beyond the 
realms of possibility that Germany may some day — though 
one devoutly hopes the day may be long postponed — make 
it once again the theatre of a desperate and devastating 
conflict, as the absorption — peaceable or otherwise — of 
Belgium and Holland would give the great Germanic Power 
the sea-board and harbours she requires. 

Outside the military and bourgeois classes there stands a 
large and important one — the official class of the Civil 
Service, in which one finds, perhaps, more of the old spirit 
of courtesy than in any other, and certainly the most 
charming examples of Belgian gentlemen. In no Conti- 
nental country will the stranger in search of help or 
information meet with greater consideration. We can well 
remember our own first introduction to one of the officials 
connected with the Department of Arts. Nothing could 
exceed the kindness and urbanity of the grey-haired old 
gentleman who received us in an office which was the acme 
of business comfort and repose. Not only did he give us 
all the information we desired to obtain ; but even went 
further, and kindly pointed out to us the pictures which in 
his opinion were, to say the least of it, doubtful examples of 
the masters to whom they were attributed. 



38 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

" Monsieur," he said, ** it is impossible for Quentin 
Matsys, or Rubens, or Correggio, to name only a few, to 
have accomplished all the works to which their names have 
been attached. But, happily, most genuine pictures are 
known. These " (indicating several in the catalogue he 
held in his hand), '*are — well" (with an expressive shrug of 
his shoulders), " doubtful. I am at your service should you 
require any further information. Make use of me to the 
fullest extent. I shall be flattered." And with that we 
were bowed out with the same ceremony that one could 
imagine this distinguished-looking old gentleman bestowing 
upon a prince of the blood royal. 

The officials of the various Government offices are equally 
courteous. The staff of these is recruited chiefly from 
candidates of good birth, or from those who are most 
promising and cultured. Promotion does not (we were 
told) come merely automatically. Even after gaining 
a foothold upon the ladder the members of the various 
departmental office staffs are expected to pass an examina- 
tion to show their fitness to be moved up. And those who 
know the inner workings of the departments, such as that 
attaching to the office of Secretary of State, the Foreign 
Office, or War Office, to name only three, agree that the 
personnel is usually excellent and efficient. 

Before we describe some of the better-known types of the 
women of Belgium, it is well for us to remember that there 
are two distinct races, and in a measure these distinctions, 
to the casual observer, are almost more marked than is the 
case with the men. 

The chief physical differences which strike one as dis- 
tinguishing the Walloon from the Flemish women are that 
the former are of stouter build and of greater stature than 
the latter, who are fairer, and usually possess fresher com- 
plexions and colouring. But the Walloon women are not 
only bigger and taller, but generally present a very marked 
contrast to the Flemings, by reason of their darker hair and 
pale, though not often swarthy, complexions. It is true 
that in Liege and Luxembourg and in some of the other 
districts one finds fair-haired Walloons, but as a general 
rule they are dark, whilst the Flemings are the opposite. 

The women of the latter race are more actively industrious 
and energetic. But the former have the advantage in pos- 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 39 

sessing better heads for business, and are also generally 
superior as cooks and housekeepers. 

The women of both races are fond of bright-coloured 
clothing, but the Walloons have the credit for possessing 
better and quieter taste, and of wearing their garments with 
greater effect and distinction. This love of colour is nowa- 
days not so noticeable, however, in everyday life as it was, 
say, even twenty years ago, and Belgian women of the lower 
classes are seldom seen at their smartest save on Sundays 
or f^tes. Then women who may be known to one as usually 
quite dowdy and ordinary in attire will blossom forth into 
bright colours, and will be smartened up to a wonderful 
extent, but at the same time will be generally dressed in 
good taste. 

After one has lived for any time in Belgium, and has 
come to know the people as they are, one recognizes that 
the women of the country are admirable specimens of the 
two races, and are alike distinguished for their industry, 
thrift, cleanliness, and capacity for hard work. 

Regarding their astonishing industry there can, we think, 
be no two opinions. Indeed, the first impression given to 
the foreigner when touring or residing in the country is 
that the women do the greater part of the work, and that 
in consequence the men seem to take things very easity. 
After a residence of some little time this opinion undoubtedly 
becomes modified by reason of the additional knowledge one 
obtains regarding the subdivision of labour. But the 
longer one lives in Belgium, and the greater opportunities 
one has in coming in close contact with all classes of the 
community, the more is the opinion that women do 
their fair share of the work of the nation in every respect 
confirmed. 

In the larger towns quite as much as in the smaller, one 
finds the women folk at the head of most of the shops, 
whether they be the general stores of the country villages, 
or businesses of considerable size and importance. It is 
only in the large stores of the capital, and of such towns as 
Antwerp, Liege, Mons, Namur, and Ostend, that men play 
their usual part in the control. The women are, however, 
at any rate in country districts, largely helped in business 
by their children, and possibly, if they have parents living, 
by them. But it is in Belgium considered somewhat 



40 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

inappropriate, if not to say undignified, for an able-bodied 
man to simply mind a shop. In quite a number of cases the 
husband will seek employment of a more active nature 
outside the family business, which his wife will successfully 
conduct. 

The milkman is almost unknown in Belgium, and except 
for a few boys and lads who accompany their mothers or 
elder sisters, all the sellers and carriers of milk are women, 
who go round with their little carts and the brightly 
polished copper or brass milkcans which are so well-known 
to all tourists. 

A word may well be said regarding the excellent 
management of the Belgian dairy farms, and of the milk- 
supply. Inspections of the milkcarts and the milk are 
frequently held in most of the large towns for the purpose of 
ascertaining whether the many regulations that exist for the 
proper conduct of the business are being duly carried out. 
Not only is the milk itself carefully tested, but the cans are 
examined to see that they are thoroughly clean, and in 
every respect in a state of good repair. The condition of 
the dogs and the harness by which they are attached to the 
carts also comes in for inspection, lest the former should 
not have been properly fed, and the latter should in any 
way chafe or gall the animals. 

Whatever one may think of the employment of dogs for 
the purpose of traction of milk and other small carts (and of 
course many humanitarians are strongly opposed to the 
custom), there can be no doubt that as a general rule the 
animals are well and kindly treated, and their comfort is 
well looked after by the authorities. Of recent years the 
owners of each cart have been obliged to provide a small 
piece of carpet or sacking for the dog to lie upon when 
resting, and also a drinking bowl. 

In all towns a considerable number of inspectors are on 
the look out day by day, and are in the habit of stopping 
milk-sellers without notice, and testing the milk that is at 
that moment being sold. In consequence it is not at all a 
common practice in Belgium to adulterate the latter, either 
by water or in any other way. Not only is the adulteration 
punished by a considerable fine, but should the offence 
be repeated frequently the licence to sell is promptly with- 
drawn, and this, of course, means the loss of livelihood. 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 41 

The dogs which are employed, particularly by the milk- 
sellers, are of a very powerful breed, and generally two are 
used to the larger types of carts. Dog traction is a very 
popular one in Belgium, and it is used not alone by the 
milk- women, but by a large number of laundresses, some of 
the bakers, and by the street vendors of vegetables, fruit, 
etc. It is also employed on many farms for the lighter 
varieties of traction-work. 

Those who know Belgium and its people well will admit 
that one of the distinguishing features of its Government is 
the disinclination it has to touch ** thorny " subjects, or to 
introduce any legislation which is likely to be of a con- 
troversial or an unpopular type. There undoubtedly exists 
a general feeling that such laws may interfere with the un- 
written rights or the customs of the people ; and for this 
reason from time to time many legislative acts which would 
be for the betterment of the workers, human and animal, 
have been merely suggested and then abandoned. Certainly 
until there is a strong agitation in favour of abolishing these 
Mens de trait nothing will be done. 

To return, however, to the women of Belgium. It may be 
claimed for them that they have the virtue of being early 
risers, and that they are also generally remarkable for their 
cheerful appearance and their great activity and briskness. 
Belgium, possibly from being so flat, and thus open to the 
invigorating winds which sweep southward across the North 
Sea, possesses a climate which is far less enervating than 
that of England. It may be for this reason that many of 
the Belgian housewives and other workers have almost 
finished the chief part of their day's work by the time that 
the average English servant or housekeeper has thoroughly 
started upon hers. Some Belgian friends who were in 
England a little while ago remarked to the writer upon the 
difference of the climates. Over here they found as much 
difficulty in getting up by half-past eight in the morning as 
they had to rise three hours earlier in Brussels, or in the 
country districts of their native land. 

One of the most noticeable types of women, found more 
especially in the towns, is the patronne of the caf^s or 
restaurants ; who may be the proprietress, or the wife, 
daughter or sister of the proprietor. As in France she sits 
or stands behind a kind of bar ; or in the larger or better- 



42 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

class caf^s sits in a glass-screened bureau from which she 
can observe the customers who enter and leave, and all 
that goes on. She is a very busy person indeed, for not 
only does she issue orders, and with her eagle eye detect 
any little slackness which may occur amongst the waiters, 
but the latter bring all the customers' orders to her, and she 
calls them down speaking-tubes to the kitchen or to the 
wine cellars. Or, as is the case in some of the very modern 
and large restaurants, transmits them by telephone. 

The cafes are practically deserted until towards midday ; 
but as is the case in France, everything will be ready for 
business a little before noon, from which time onwards 
till about the middle of the afternoon the cafe or restaurant 
will generally be at its busiest. About three o'clock, how- 
ever, if one enters one of these resorts, one will find the pro- 
prietor and his family, and a certain number of the waiters, 
sitting down to a comfortable meal at various tables. After 
an hour spent over lunch, partaken of in a leisurely way, 
preparations for the evening trade commence, and once 
more everything is movement and bustle. 

By five or six o'clock the patronne is back again in her 
place, and the daughters of the proprietor (if he has any) are 
also at their various posts prepared to superintend the meal 
or see to the wants of their customers. 

Dinners in the restaurants of most of even the larger 
Belgian towns are over by eight o'clock, a slightly earlier 
hour than is the case in Paris. Commencing at about half- 
past five or six, there is a two hours or two hours and a half 
rush of business, and then comes the slack time which inter- 
venes between the last dinner and the first supper, after the 
theatres and places of amusement have closed. Such 
suppers, however, are not nearly so popular in Brussels and 
other big towns of Belgium as is the case in Paris and 
London, and most of the late customers who turn into the 
caf^s at half-past ten to half-past eleven at night, merely 
come there for a cup of coffee, a bottle of wine, or an ice, 
or a cafe glace in the case of the ladies. A considerable 
number of whom, by the way, nowadays, are addicted to 
cigarette-smoking. 

Towards eleven o'clock and even earlier in Brussels (and 
the same remark is applicable to most of the large towns) 
the crowd at the caf^s, except in the case of a few special 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 43 

ones, begins to thin, and the patrons to find their way 
home to their flats in the region of the Midi, Avenue 
Louise, Quartier Leopold, or the Porte de Namur ; their 
villas in the Laeken or Molenbeek quarters ; or even further 
afield in the suburbs. But although the great rush of caf6 
life is over rather earlier than it would be in Paris, the 
patronne still remains at her post chatting with belated 
customers, and prepared to look after the wants of any stray 
visitor who, by reason of a late arrival by train, or want of 
knowledge of the customs which govern the hours of feeding 
in Belgium, makes his appearance for supper after the 
greater number of the customers have departed. If he finds 
(as he will undoubtedly do) a less varied choice of plats at 
this late hour than he would in one of the Boulevard 
restaurants of Paris, at any rate, he will be sure of an 
atmosphere of cordial welcome, and that whatever he is 
served with will be well cooked and appetizing. 

The workgirls of Brussels who are employed in the large 
dressmakers' and milliners' shops are a type by themselves, 
just as is the case in Paris. They are equally neat, equally 
gai, equally industrious as their French sisters. And the 
Brussels midinettes who parade the streets in the neighbour- 
hood of the Boulevard Anspach, Place de la Monnaie, Place 
de Bronkere, and along the broad Boulevard du Midi during 
the half-hour they have for lunch towards noon give just 
the same touch of life, vivacity, and cheerfulness to the 
streets they frequent as do their sisters who pour out from 
the workrooms of the famous couturieres of the Rue de la 
Paix, Rue du Rivoli, and Avenue de I'Op^ra in Paris. It is 
astonishing, too, what a wonderful amount of pleasure these 
girls are able to extract from what must, after all, be a 
somewhat monotonous phase of existence. 

Living, as Belgians live — that is to say, as a rule consider- 
ably more simply and lightly than people of the same class 
in England — is certainly cheaper than in London. This is 
largely due to four circumstances. Firstly, the splendid 
supply of fresh fish which is always available in Brussels, 
brought from the not too distant sea-board off which there 
are some of the finest fishing grounds in Europe. Secondly, 
owing to the abundance of fresh vegetables ard fruit grown 
on the outskirts of Brussels. Thirdly, to the general 
practice of buying most fresh food stuffs in the open market. 



44 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Fourthly, to the economical use of all articles of food by the 
thrifty housewives and the well-trained domestic servants. 

In the months of June and July, to purchase fine black 
grapes from sixpence to eightpence a pound is no unusual 
thing, and vegetables — the freshest and best that one could 
come across — are proportionately cheap. Fish, too, is far 
cheaper than in London or Paris, if bought at the fish 
market near the Place St. Catherine, where also every kind 
can be obtained at a most reasonable rate. 

One should not forget the lace-makers who work not only 
in the large factories of Brussels and other great towns but 
who, many of them, make the beautiful fabrics, which are 
world-famous, in their cottages in the country districts on 
the outskirts of the large manufacturing and commercial 
cities. Of these we shall have something to say in another 
chapter, but in passing one may remark upon the skill and 
wonderful industry of the women and girls employed in the 
factories of the Capital. Seated for the most part in light 
and airy ateliers on low chairs, with their lace pillows 
attached to adjustable stands, and with hundreds of little 
thread - bobbins, which are shot deftly to and fro with 
bewildering swiftness across the ** cushions," they work 
from early morning often till late at night, in manufacturing 
the varieties of fine and exquisite lace which have become 
famous the world over. 

The average wages amount to the not very considerable 
sum of £i a week, the work commencing very soon after 
seven in the morning and continuing until between six and 
seven at night. Roughly a twelve hours' day, with about an 
hour and a half taken out of it for meals and rest. 

Many writers who have only a slight acquaintance with 
the inner life of the Belgian people, and of the women and 
girls in particular, have created an impression in the minds 
of foreigners that Belgian women are devoted unduly to 
pleasure and mere amusement. This idea is erroneous, as 
the people — certainly as regards the women — are dis- 
tinguished by a natural cheerfulness of disposition, and an 
aptitude for getting the best out of life. Our own experi- 
ence of Belgian women of all classes leads us to think that 
they get comparatively little amusement when their great 
industry and the amount of hard work they accomplish is 
taken into consideration. Indeed, a Belgian gentleman of 




(73 

Pi 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 45 

some considerable official standing, told us quite recently 
that among the women of the lower, the middle, and the 
upper-middle classes, amusement forms a very small portion 
of their life, and that they are, in fact, supposed to find their 
chief pleasure in work and their various household duties. 

It is only, indeed, on fete days and other recognized 
holidays that the regular and unvarying toil of the lower- 
middle classes is abandoned for the time being for the 
purpose of obtaining a little recreation. Then at the 
Kermesses, and the fairs which visit the country towns 
once or twice a year, one certainly finds the people abandon- 
ing themselves to the amusement of the moment, and 
thoroughly enjoying themselves with a whole-hearted gaiety 
which is very pleasant to witness. Then, too, their best 
clothing — which at other times is carefully stored up in 
presses — will be worn with a distinction which is the more 
remarkable the lower the social scale in which the women 
happen to be. As we have before said, the Walloon women 
are distinguished as the better dressers, and although their 
menfolk are content with the peasant or bourgeois types of 
clothing (which are singularly undistinguished and very 
frequently ill-fitting), their womenfolk, on the other hand, 
will often be wearing such well-cut clothes, and these with 
such distinction as would not disgrace a Parisienne. 

The absence of regular theatres in even many of the 
larger towns is a great indication of the lack of a love of 
pleasure which distinguishes most of the inhabitants of the 
provincial towns. During recent journeyings almost 
throughout the length and breadth of Belgium we were 
surprised to find in large towns of thirty and forty 
thousand inhabitants that the only forms of amusement 
discoverable of an evening were small orchestras in the 
cafes, and third - rate music - halls, chiefly patronized 
by soldiers and the lower middle-class, in garrison towns 
such as Mons. Cinematograph performances seemed every- 
where in both the greater and the smaller towns to be the 
most popular form of dissipation in which the inhabitants 
indulged. 

In most of even the large provincial cities, people go to bed 
at what would be an unconscionably early hour in an English 
town of a similar size. There is little visiting between 
neighbours of an evening, most of it being done in the day- 



46 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

time, on Sundays or fetes. And although in the larger 
towns many of the middle-class men belong to "clubs," 
which meet at some central cafe for the purpose of gossip, 
dominoes, billiards, or cards, generally the wives and 
daughters remain at home quietly sewing. 

As a matter of fact, the Belgians are a distinctly domestic 
and home-keeping race, and it may not be known to all that 
the saying ** East, West, Home's best " is not, as so many 
people suppose, of American or English origin, but of 
Flemish. 

One very remarkable feature distinguishing Belgian! 
women as a race from others is that this love and adapt-" 
ability for domesticity characterizes not only the lower class 
and lower-middle class but the upper-middle class women. 
The " society " woman who is respectable and the women 
whose husbands have by business ability and industry 
made large fortunes, and who may be described as rich 
men, lead very much the same type of life — dull, many 
people may think it — as is led by their humbler sisters. Of 
course, greater wealth enables them to dress better, and 
when living in such towns as Brussels, Antwerp, or Liege 
to visit places of amusement more frequently, and to 
take a longer summer holiday either at les bains de mer 
or in neighbouring countries — France, Switzerland, or 
Germany ; but the life they lead is very much the same as 
that of their humbler sisters. 

Society in Brussels is of a much more quiet and un- 
ostentatious character than that of London, Paris, or 
BerHn. There is an absence of the rush and turmoil ; the 
multifarious engagements, and feverish pursuit of pleasure 
which distinguishes what is known as ** high life " in the 
capitals we have named. 

' Of course, Belgian *' society " women pay calls, go to 
"five o'clocks," and take their daily drives in the parks, or 
in the country surrounding their estates ; attend flower- 
shows, bazaars, race-meetings, military sports, and similar 
gatherings, as do women of a like position all the world over. 
But whether she be high or low, the one absorbing interest 
of the Belgian woman's life is her household and its various 
developments and affairs. 

English, French, and Americans, accustomed to "society" 
life in London, Paris, or New York, almost invariably find 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 47 

that of Brussels dull and rather void of interest except just 
at the very height of the season. 

Although perhaps costly and extravagant dress is not so 
much prevalent among the women of the better class in the 
Belgian capital as it is with their sisters in Paris and 
London, yet the Brussels modistes enjoy a high reputation 
for the beauty of their " creations " just as they do for style 
and fit. 

" Brussels," we were told by one of the greatest 
couturieres of the Belgian capital, " draws most of its 
inspiration from Paris, and is generally some little time 
ahead as regards fashion when compared with London and 
Berlin." 

In one department of women's dress, at any rate, 
Brussels can well hold her own, even with Paris, and that is 
in lingerie, which is doubtless owing to the fact that beautiful 
lace is manufactured so largely in Belgium and is, compara- 
tively speaking, so reasonable in price. As a general rule, 
too, we were told (except, perhaps, to tourists and members 
of the English colony inexperienced in shopping and bargain- 
ing) the cost of dress as a whole is in Brussels considerably 
lower than it is in Paris, whilst the charges made by the 
dressmakers are also very moderate, compared with those 
of similar artistes in Paris and in London. 

Unlike her French and English sisters of the middle class, 
the Belgian woman will prefer to have one or two really good 
costumes, to a number which are tawdry and showy rather 
than really serviceable and smart. Her ordinary dress is 
always distinguished rather for simplicity and usefulness and 
an element of style than for novelty and elaboration. Her two 
or three good dresses will be worn when they can be shown 
to advantage — that is to say, when shopping, making calls, 
visiting places of amusement, and on Sundays — and will be 
very carefully preserved when not in wear, so that generally 
they remain fresh and smart until a change of fashion has 
made a change of garment desirable. 

The dress allowance of a middle-class tradesman's wife 
will amount to from ,^20 to 3^25 a year, and that of a 
professional man perhaps to ^Tio or ^f 20 more. And for this 
sum they will respectively make a far better appearance than 
a Parisienne or a Londoner with half as much again to expend 
on her clothes. In many cases, too, the greater portion of 



48 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



I 



the clothing bill of her children (if she has any) will have to 
be met out of her own dress allowance. 

The position and life of the women of Belgium strike the 
observer as being on the whole singularly happy, because of 
the heartwhole interest which they one and all appear to 
throw into their domestic and other duties and affairs. Cer- 
tainly, whether they be the manageresses of shops, the 
proprietresses of restaurants and hotels, the workgirls in 
dressmakers' and milliners' establishments, in lace factories 
or glove factories, the milk-women, or those who are best 
described as farm labourers, the little shopkeepers of the 
small provincial towns, or the pit-girls of the " Borinage," 
they all appear to esteem labour as part of their natural 
existence, and to work with an energy and whole-hearted- 
ness that might well be copied by the women of some other 
countries. 

The domestic servants, who form a considerable class of 
themselves in Belgium, are, we have been told by those who 
employ them, generally admirable. A good cook is the rule 
rather than the exception, and if the domestic is merely a 
maid-of-all-work she may be depended upon to work 
industriously from five or six in the morning till eight or nine 
at night for quite moderate wages, requiring not her evening 
a week and half Sunday out, but contented if she has one 
evening every fortnight or three weeks. On these occasions 
she enjoys herself, either by walking out with her young man, 
or attending some dance or other form of simple amusement 
at one of the numerous club-rooms which exist in most of 
the large, and in many of the small, provincial towns. 

Belgium, although noted for its manufacturing industries, 
and with a population almost twice the density of that of the 
United Kingdom, as yet, in spite of the decided movement 
of the population to the towns — which is, of course, one of 
the outstanding economic features of all modern civilization 
— remains largely a rural community. 

In igoo the percentage of the country population was 56*5 
as against 267 in the United Kingdom. Thus it will be seen 
the country is still largely an agricultural community, and, 
indeed, nearly three-quarters of a million of her people are 
agriculturists. What is still more striking, perhaps, is that 
65 per cent, of them consists of farmers and members of 
their families who work with them — only 35 per cent, being 



THE MEN AND WOMEN OF BELGIUM 49 

employed as labourers. In our own land these figures are 
practically reversed. 

Belgium is a land of small owners, and is much divided up 
— one in ten of the population owning at least a plot — and 
there are practically no large landed proprietors such as are 
known in the United Kingdom. No less than 47 per cent, of 
the soil is owned or held by those whose holdings do not 
exceed a hundred acres. 

It will therefore be gathered that the peasant proprietors 
and their families play a not unimportant part in the 
prosperity of the country at large. They, at all events, 
succeed in wresting, by the unceasing family labour of all 
sexes and ages, a yield from the land largely in excess of 
what is obtained in England. And for agricultural land in 
Belgium the price is nearly double as regards purchase or 
renting what it is with us. 

It would appear to the student that the wider ownership 
of land, and the consequently larger number of economical 
independent units in the population, has more than 
a little to do with the fact that the proportion of Belgian 
unemployed is considerably below what it is in Great Britain. 

A recent and a careful writer upon the subject* says of 
the agricultural labourer : " While it lasts the lot of a 
Belgian labourer is not an enviable one." But it should be 
explained that the term " while it lasts " has reference to the 
fact that a Belgian agricultural labourer has a far better 
chance of becoming an independent small holder than he 
would have in England. But, on the other hand, the same 
writer thinks that it would be an exaggeration to refer in 
general terms to the life of a small holder as being one of 
incessant toil and unending slavery ; and taking this class 
as a whole the writer considers that their lot is decidedly 
superior to that of their English prototypes. 

No doubt the life of the average rural worker in Belgium 
is rendered harder from the fact that the wages are only 
about at the level which was attained here seventy years ago. 
And as Belgium has not yet adopted any system of com- 
pulsory education it is not much to be wondered at that the 
Belgians of the lower classes have not yet comprehended 
the virtues and power of combination ; and that labour laws 

* " Land and Labour : Lessons from Belgium," by B. Seebohm 
Rowntree. 



50 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

controlling all industries are sadly at fault, with the possible 
exception of those governing the work in Belgian mines ; 
and that the drink curse is even a greater evil than it is in 
the United Kingdom. 

For our own part, and from what we have seen of the 
Belgian agriculturists, we are not inclined to take quite so 
gloomy a view as the writer we have quoted regarding their 
possible outlook upon life. As a general rule, they have 
struck us as being singularly contented with their lot, which, 
if a hard one from a manual point of view, is not without its 
advantages in that so many of them are working for them- 
selves and reaping the greater part of the benefit that arises 
from their toil. In one respect all workers in Belgium have 
an immense advantage over their counterparts in England 
because of the splendid system of national transport which 
exists in their country, enabling the workers to live in healthy 
surroundings by reason of the very low railway fares which 
prevail ; and the national afforestation which is always 
being carried out on a large scale proves a very valuable 
factor in employment. 

To see virtue in the customs or the people of other lands 
is considered by some people to exhibit an unpatriotic spirit. 
But it is only those observers who look fairly and squarely at 
the virtues and vices which distinguish the people of other 
nations who can hope to arrive at a just or unbiased and 
critical estimate of the merits or demerits of a foreign land 
or people. 

Belgium remains in one's memory as a highly industrious 
as well as a great industrial nation, and its inhabitants as a 
people, who not only improve greatly upon acquaintance, but 
whose leading characteristics are such as go to prove them 
a solid, enterprising, and home-loving race. 




K 



CHAPTER III 

SOME SEASIDE TOWNS AND LIFE ON THE " PLAGES " 

AS the Dover-Ostend mail-boat draws in towards the 
land on its way across the North Sea, long before the 
harbour mouth at Ostend, with its narrow waterway and 
two long estacades or piers known as the Estacade de I'Est 
and Estacade de TOuest, is distinguishable the huge hotels 
on the digue which appear grey or gleaming white as the sun 
is obscure or shining become visible, like an irregular row 
of teeth of some huge sea monster cast upon the low-lying 
shore. 

This brilliant seaside town — wicked with the concentrated 
wickedness of a truly cosmopolitan holiday resort, to which 
the sharpers and demi-mondames of many lands flock 
during the season as though scenting their victims from 
afar ; interesting to the student of manners, morals, and 
twentieth-century progress ; and fascinating to the " unco 
guid," who during the months of July and August flock 
across the North Sea, drawn hither by the curiosity that the 
" proper " always have for the underlying improper — is like 
none other. Money seems to exude in the hotels, and it 
certainly flows through the fingers of men, and literally 
melts in the hands of the hordes of charming and beautiful 
^omen who, drawn from the four quarters of Europe, 
frequent it in the height of the season. 

The summer life at Ostend is the life of fashionable, idle, 
and in a measure strenuous, Europe crushed into an area 
of a few hundred metres deep and three or four kilo- 
metres long. Here in Ostend vice and virtue are in a 
sense segregated, though such is not the case in most of 
the great palaces of hotels which rear proud fagades along 
the marvellous digtie, and gaze out with many window-eyes 

51 



52 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

over the changeful expanse of the open sea. Everyone has 
heard of the price one has to pay in these huge caravan- 
serais of luxury. Stories are apt to be exaggerated, but still 
during the short season of les bains de mer one need have a 
deep purse and a light heart to " put up " at some of them 
we mention. 

At the back of the town, in the by-streets near the Pare 
Leopold, and in the quarter set in from the sea near the 
Hippodrome, are the " family " hotels, and *' pensions," 
where good cooking and a reasonable amount of comfort costs 
little more than at Hastings, Brighton, or Bournemouth 
during the summer months when the town-weary flock to 
the borders of the sparkling sea. 

" But to enjoy Ostend," as a vivacious French friend 
explained, " one must have la galette (cash), toujours lagalette, 
and plenty of it." One cannot obtain much amusement, 
save that of watching the sea and the multitudinous types 
along the digue and on the plage, for nothing at Ostend in 
the height of the season. But the keen observer of men 
and things will, we think, admit that the experience one 
gains is worth paying for. 

Though the town as it is to-day known to tourists and 
visitors is of wonderfully modern growth, an outcropping as 
it were of palaces and spacious villas from the inhospitable 
sand dunes, Ostend is in reality of ancient standing. In the 
times of the glorious Charlemagne it was known as a fishing 
village of some little importance and size. By the thirteenth 
century it had grown to be a strong fortress guarding the 
coast and looking out across the wide expanse of waters 
from which the menace of the Northmen might come. Like 
most similar places it suffered from attacks, sieges, plagues, 
famines, and the dangers and vicissitudes of the stirring 
times of the Middle Ages. The famous Countess Margaret 
of Flanders raised it to the dignity of a township in the 
year 1267, and granted it valuable privileges which fostered 
both its growth and importance. 

Among the sieges to which the Ostend of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries was subjected, was the ever 
memorable one — one of the long sieges of history — lasting 
three years. The States-General in their struggle were 
assisted by France and England, and Ostend, attacked by 
the forces under the Spanish General Ambrogio Spinola, 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 53 

offered a stout resistance, and only yielded — as did not a few 
other strongholds in those days — -when famine inside assisted 
the besiegers without. During the war arising out of 
the Pragmatic Sanction published by Charles VI., when 
he settled his dominions upon his daughter Maria Theresa, 
in which almost all the chief European nations including 
Great Britain, France, Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony were 
involved, Ostend was captured by the French forces in the 
year of CuUoden, 1745. They held it for a period of three 
years, but were compelled to restore it to Austria, part of 
whose empire West Flanders was, at the Peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle on April 30, 1748. The town was destined, however, 
to once more fall into the hands of the French, who captured 
the fortress during the wars of the Revolution, when vast 
armies of the Republic were concentrated upon the West 
Flanders frontier to repel the forces which had been raised 
by other monarchies in aid of the Royalists of France. 
Ostend remained a French possession until the fall ci 
Napoleon at Waterloo, when it and Flanders were in- 
corporated in the kingdom of the Netherlands. It so 
remained until the year 1830, when there came the revolt 
of the Flemings and Walloons and the kingdom of Belgium 
was established, of which Ostend and West Flanders formed 
a part. 

The old order, however, as regards Ostend has passed 
almost completely away, giving place to the newest of the 
new. The castle has disappeared, the ** ramparts" have 
(what remains of them) been converted into promenades, 
and the sea-front has been entirely transformed. In the 
place of the fisher-town has arisen one of the most fashion- 
able and modern Continental watering-places. A town of 
hotels, inns, boarding-houses, villas and shops, many of 
the first named vieing with those of the Riviera in magnifi- 
cence, size and costliness. Through the port flows during 
the year, and more especially, of course, during the summer 
months, a great and ever-increasing stream of travellers and 
holiday makers bound for Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzer- 
land, and other countries further East. It is to this ever- 
increasing traffic that the place in a large measure owes its 
foundation and its vogue. Its normal population of some 
40,000 is more than doubled during the summer months, 
when a truly cosmopolitan crowd flocks to it from the four 



54 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

corners of Europe ; and its native inhabitants — the fisher- 
folk of yester year — now comparatively few in number, 
become almost obliterated and little more than a picturesque 
element in the life of the town. 

Ostend, however, just out of and just in the season, is a 
marvellously different place. At the commencement of July, 
this exotic city by the Northern sea is about to put on its 
mantle of transient gaiety. The great white hotels along 
the wide and the as yet almost unpeopled digue are 
cleaned and repainted, and furbished up ready for the 
coming of the cosmopolitan crowd which two or three weeks 
later will pack the Splendide, Ocean, and Royal Palace, and 
other huge caravanserais to repletion, throng the sea-front, 
invade the Kursaal, and appear at night in the shop-window- 
like restaurants which form the ground floors of most of the 
great hotels. 

As August approaches, it is towards Ostend that the 
motor cars of Grand Dukes (whose visits, by the way, seem 
inseparable from temporary alliances and scandals) and 
plutocrats will be speeding from the Russian frontier and 
European capitals ; while trains de luxe bring lesser folk to 
their annual *'rest" at les bains de mer. The costly round 
of daily pleasure — which can be made to deplete the coffers 
of a Croesus — is about to commence. In no similar resort 
in the world, possibly, is a day of pleasure so elaborately 
planned by its votaries as at Ostend. There is the etiquette 
of each hour, and each amusement has its proper time. 
Bathing, horse-racing, '* le lawn tennis," and croquet at the 
Club or on the plage, golf, gambling in the Club Prive at 
the Kursaal, and at other resorts; dancing, music, balls, 
epicurean feeding in private or in public — in the softly 
lighted ** cabinets particuliers " of Maxim's and other 
restaurants, or the great glass windows of the huge hotels — 
all have their proper hours. And sleep ? Well, one gets it 
as one may. Only the professional beauties probably sleep 
by rule at Ostend, in the season. 

And yet one remembers that it was to the Ostend of his 
day — already a watering-place of some little note, but how 
different ! — that Byron came to commence his many wander- 
ings on the Continent after his disgrace in the April after 
Waterloo. Byron, after unburdening himself, in the columns 
of a newspaper called the Champion of two widely differing 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS S5 

poems—one tender and the other acridly bitter, the one 
addressed to his sister and the other to Mrs. Clermont — 
" set sail from the port of Dover on April i6, 1816, and in 
due time came at length " — now it is a matter of three and 
a half hours — "to Ostend by sea." He had fled from 
London in his famous coach, which had, we are told, cost 
;f 500 to build, from the bailiffs and duns who had added to 
his life's misery for a year and more past in his house in 
Piccadilly. When he came to Dover it was to find the wind 
so adverse that his setting sail was delayed. 

One can imagine how Byron fumed and fretted. For had 
not news reached him that the bailiffs were already in 
possession of his London mansion, and might even pursue 
him ? From Lord Broughton's ** Recollections of a Long 
Life " we learn how, on the Monday following his arrival at 
Dover, Byron ** got on board [the mail packet] a little after 
nine. The bustle kept Byron in spirits, but he looked 
affected when the packet glided off. I ran to the end of the 
pier, and as the vessel tossed by us through a rough sea and 
contrary wind, I saw him again. The dear fellow pulled off 
his cap and waved it to me." The mail packet arrived at 
Ostend at midnight on April 27 with Byron on board. He 
seems from all that has come down to us — and the know- 
ledge is scanty — to have suffered from overmastering depres- 
sion. But the active, luminous mind of the poet was already 
at work turning his experiences into verse pictures for 
inclusion in the third canto of wonderful ** Childe Harold's 
Pilgrimage." Surely in the following stanza one catches a 
distant echo of the turmoil of sea through which he had 
recently passed, of the riven sky and scurrying scud, of the 
salt air and organ note of the North Sea wind : 

" Once more upon the waters ! yet once more ! 
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed 
That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar ! 
Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead ! 
Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed, 
And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale, 
Still must I on ; for I am as a weed, 
Flung from the rock on Ocean's foam to sail, 
Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail."* 

The voyager, however, did not pause long at the small 
and then dirty seaport which was, nevertheless, one of the 

* "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Canto III., Stanza 2. 



S6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

"gates of Europe." His coach departed through the old 
Porte on its way to Bruges. None seem to know where the 
poet stayed the night, if he paused in his journey beyond a 
few hours which linked midnight with dawn. But Ostend 
will, nevertheless, always be connected with Byron's flight 
from shame and disaster. 

But the English literary annals of the town do not end 
with Byron's brief sojourn. In the Rue Longue, No. 29, at 
the back of the digue, and separated from it only by the 
houses and the curving Boulevard van Iseghem, stands a 
house which can scarcely fail to be of some interest to 
English people and Americans who come to Ostend, even 
though they be not literary. Here that great laughter- 
maker, Tom Hood, resided for his health during the years 
1837 to 1840, carrying on his literary work (chiefly, we are 
told, that of his Comic Annual and Hood's Own) with ** un- 
common difficulty." Hood, as one gathers from his 
biography by Jerrold, liked the place, and would even have 
been willing, had wa3^s and means been forthcoming, to 
settle there at least for a time. He from Ostend indited his 
sarcastic "Ode to Rae Wilson, Esq.," who had, unfortu- 
nately for himself, seen fit publicly to reprove the poet for 
" undue levity in touching upon religious topics." This 
charge nettled Hood, who was a really religious man, and 
whose satire was directed, not at religion, but against shams 
and cant ; and when the attack was renewed he produced 
the famous and stinging " Ode," in which he wrote : 

" I do not hash the Gospel in my books, 
And thus upon the public mind intrude it, 
As if I thought, like Otaheitan cooks, 
No food was fit to eat till I had chewed it. 
On Bible stilts I don't affect to stalk ; 
Nor lard with Scripture my familiar talk." 

The effect upon the person to whom the ** Ode " was 
dedicated is said to have been crushing. 

There was no digue like that of the present day when 
Hood sought to walk along the coast and sniff the keen, 
fresh North Sea air, which blows uncontaminated by the 
smoke of cities or the lungs of men. His path lay amid the 
sand-dunes, past fishing hovels, whether he went eastward 
or westward, although five years previously, according to 
Baedeker and other authorities, Ostend had commenced its 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 57 

development as a fashionable seaside watering-place. The 
narrow streets, too, which Hood traversed, have many of 
them been swept away, and the memory of the man is dim 
with the Ostenders of the twentieth century. 

Many writers have crossed to Ostend and lingered there 
for a variable time, but none have left their mark upon the 
place, though the modern town with its kaleidoscopic life has 
been portrayed more or less vividly in their books. 

Certainly Ostend has nowadays become one of the most 
interesting and amusing of Continental holiday resorts, as 
well as a most bracing and invigorating one. A lady whose 
travels, we presume, had not been very extensive, recently 
wrote to a London daily newspaper after a trip to Ostend, 
and amongst other things she said : " A day at Ostend is a 
liberal education." Perhaps it is. Let us try and describe 
one such day that we spent not so very long ago in the 
height of the season. 

Holiday-makers of the less exotic type, many of them, are 
early astir. It arouses no comment in the mind of the com- 
missionnaire at an hotel to be told to wake English or French 
visitors at six or half-past, even though they may not have 
come in from Maxim's, the Casino, Club Prive, the Scala 
Music Hall, or the famous Grand Cafe de la Terrasse, which 
somewhat grandiloquently and inaccurately announces itself 
on its menu card as ** le plus vaste Music Hall du Littoral," 
till an hour well past midnight. At the early hour we have 
mentioned of an August morning the digue will be almost 
deserted ; here and there one finds a solitary figure gazing 
out over the grey sea, which is veiled by a slight pearly haze, 
and the old-ivory-tinted strand, which at low tide is one 
wide expanse, corrugated here and there by the lazily 
receding tide. Along the digue may be also seen couples or 
small groups of early risers bound for the plage, with more 
or less efficient shrimping-nets over their shoulders in imita- 
tion of the real pecheurs and pecheuses who will have been out 
since grey dawn broke in the east. 

*' On to the plage and shoes off" is the word. Along the 
edge of the lazily retreating or incoming tide one meets 
isolated paddlers or family parties. Women and girls who 
later in the day will display the elaborate and beautiful 
toilettes of Paris, Brussels, and Viennese couturieres upon the 
digue, the race-course, or in the wide grounds of the Royal 



58 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Palace Hotel, are now in bathing costumes, or with discarded 
or tucked-up petticoats, boldly displaying lingerie and shapely 
limbs flecked with glistening drops of salt water. For in the 
early hours of the day, when Ostend itself is mostly still 
sleeping after the fatigues of the previous night, it is the un- 
conventional note which marks what life there is upon the 
silvery sable and in the shallows where prawns and shrimps 
dart swiftly. Dainty indeed are these paddling pecheusesy 
with the " trail of the amateur " in their delicate laces and 
elaborate lingerie as much as in their often ridiculously in- 
adequate toy shrimping-nets and creels. But they get plenty 
of fun out of these early morning expeditions, and a bracing- 
up in the cool air to fit them for the toil of pleasure of the 
just-broken day. 

Ten o'clock on a morning of sunshine, with a deep blue 
vault of sky above, and stately sailing argosies of fleecy 
white clouds, and the sea ultramarine or the colour of 
absinthe, as it may be, of a depth almost unfathomable, or 
shallow with the white sand shining up through it. The 
yellow plage in front of the great hotels upon the now- 
thronged digue is already thick with crowds of eager 
bathers. There is a long queue at the chalet-like bureaux 
set up against the sea-wall, where tickets for the cabines 
are to be obtained and costumes and towels procured. 
Even around the further chalet, where the provident 
deposit watches, rings, money, and any other valuables, 
there is quite a small crowd. There is no disorder, for 
people at Ostend, eager though they may be to get in the 
water, seem to realize that they have the morning before 
them, and good-nature matches the smiling sky above. 

Already many of the hundreds of machines, which when not 
in use are drawn up in serried rows along the plage, are 
lumbering their way down to the water's edge. As they 
sway across the sand into the sea, where their huge black 
wheels churn up the lapping tide, they form delicate notes 
of colour ; pink, saffron, French grey-blue, rose, orange, red, 
pale blue, dark blue applied to their square-looking wooden 
bodies in bars or stripes of varying widths. The carved 
ridges and finials upon the famous cabines de luxe cutting the 
horizon line sharply. A very little while later and the sea 
is literally alive with bathers, and the morning scurry for | 
machines and reversions of machines commences. Late ' 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 59 

comers are now so eager to secure cabines that they wade 
into the water, and mount upon the tail-boards or steps of 
in-going vehicles to secure " next turn." 

Alas ! sometimes the gay paddlers (they are, after all, 
little more) of Ostend will remain in a couple of hours ! 

Dainty Parisiennes, stolid Berlinese, smart Bruxelloises 
gather up their dainty skirts boldly, and follow their men- 
folk into the sea in search of a soon-to-be-vacated machine. 

The wagging of the " cow's tail," intimating that the 
occupant of a machine wishes to return to shore, is the 
signal for a rush in which skirts retreat yet further waist- 
ward, and amid laughter and much splashing the incoming 
machine is seized upon. Then ensues a wordy warfare as 
to the priority of arrival and claim. A battle of words 
which sounds infinitely less good-tempered and much worse 
than it really is. Some one wins the day, smiles benignly 
at the defeated rivals, and all is well. 

In the water is now a gay and laughing throng. Cameras 
are busy. The professional photographer, who during the 
few short weeks of the season coins money by taking snap- 
shots of the bathers at prices varying from fifty centimes 
for one proof, a franc for three, and double those amounts, 
is busy importuning all and sundry. The dainty Parisienne 
from some well-known music hall or theatre, whose costume 
is brief, black, and lace-topped ; the " society " woman who 
wears a silken swimming suit of a tightness which outrivals 
the famous breeches of the French King Louis ; the little 
workgirl, in a smart home-made suit of a Neapolitan fisher- 
boy type ; the fat German haiisfrau, with her equally stout 
daughters ; the exquisitely dressed demi-mondaine who has 
had her silk or serge costume from Doucet or Worth especially 
designed by an equally famous fashion artist ; and the 
American or English girl who seeks still to preserve the 
extreme proprieties by a serviceable costume of black or 
blue or red serge trimmed severely with white braid ; the 
fat man — whose balloon-like contours cause the irreverent 
amongst the crowd Hning the shore along the water's 
edge to address the query as to when he is going to 
ascend ; the thin man who is advised by the same irreverent 
jokers not to cut anyone when he bobs up against them ; 
the wasp-like bather who dons a gorgeous yellow and black 
striped costume ; the dandy who fancies something in green 



6o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

and yellow; the man who wears a quartered flannel shirt 
like that of a footballer, and white flannel knickerbockers ; 
the serious swimmer, who at Ostend can scarcely ever hope 
to be permitted to swim ; are one and all importuned to 
have their photographs taken. Many succumb to the 
blandishments of the man in white ducks, who trudges 
about in the water all morning long with the familiar 
camera on a tripod, surmounted with a black velvet focusing 
cloth. The results of his labours will be ready for approval 
the same night or early next morning, and as everyone is in 
a good-humour in the sea at Ostend they can scarcely fail 
to please. 

The fact that a photo is about to be taken seems to be 
transmitted by some mysterious system of wireless tele- 
graphy all along the beach, and the crowd of idlers at once 
concentrates upon the spot. The victims who may be 
posing astride the wheel or roof of their machine, or 
more decorously seated upon or leaning against the tail- 
board or steps, are the cynosure of several hundreds of 
pairs of eyes. Everyone in the crowd comments good- 
humouredly upon the costume and figures of the bathers 
(especially those of the ladies) who are being ** taken." 
The ordeal is, indeed, so severe a one that we have known 
the victims decamp and rush back into the sea without 
leaving their names or addresses with the operators. 

Then the little crowd straggles away again along the 
water's edge in search of some other sensation. The daring 
pranks of some Parisienne or demi-mondaine ; a boisterous 
game of hide and seek between the machines ; the arrest 
on suspicion of some possibly entirely innocent foreign 
bather who has forgotten the number and location of his 
machine, and who has indiscreetly gone up the steps and 
peered into some other in the vain hope of identifying his own 
particular clothing. He is denounced by the occupants of 
the machine to the gendarmes of the plage, and as he can 
usually speak no language save his own finds himself in a 
tight corner. All these episodes provide that element of 
excitement always present, or at least latent, in a Con- 
tinental crowd. 

\ The approach of the luncheon hour sees a rapid incoming 
of bathers to the machines now thick upon the edge of the 
water. Long before this, however, the elegantes who 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 6i 

patronize those luxurious bathing machines known as cabines 
de luxe, which, with extra fees to the bathing women, to the 
sauvetage men, and to the men who drive the horse which 
hauls the cahine seaward and then shoreward, cost the 
user close upon fifteen francs for the morning bathe, have 
come out of the water to perform their elaborate toilet arts, 
which frequently made more or less in view of the beach 
audience are not much less frequently finished upon the 
steps of the machines themselves. 

By a little after mid-day there is a constant and ever 
increasing stream of people flowing from the beach up on to 
the digue, along it to the restaurants of the town, or into 
the great hotels which tower many storied and pearly white 
or grey above the plage. The luncheon hour is not usually 
a long one at Ostend. There is so much to be done after- 
wards. 

During the season few days pass without some racing of 
one kind or another at the Hippodrome ; tennis matches in 
the grounds of the Royal Palace Hotel or at the Lawn 
Tennis Club; or a dehghtful Children's Ball, Bataille des 
Fleurs, or other social function at the Kursaal. To these 
everybody who is anybody goes. A French writer has 
declared that " the Grand Stand at the Hippodrome on a 
race day is a parterre of multi-tinted delightful human 
flowers. . . . Amid this throng of exquisitely dressed 
women, the perfume from whose dresses mingles on the 
breeze, there runs a frisson of excitement as the flag falls 
and the fleet-footed racers get away. An excitement which 
grows in intensity as the horses, small and ant-like in the 
distance, round the corner and come into the straight. A 
sob goes up as they pass the post, either in a group of 
shining, fleeting animals or in a procession." 

Between the races the stand is almost deserted for the 
pesage, for the shade of the stand, for the caf6. There is a 
Babel of languages ; but there is an undercurrent of English 
and American. Pretty and smart girls, who speak through 
their noses, confess their losses to indulgent "poppers," 
and serious-looking and severely-gowned Enghshwomen 
compare notes, and discuss the horses and the next race 
with familiarity and acumen. 

When the last race has been run there is the general 
exodus. Hundreds of the more fashionable go to the 



62 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



pleasant grounds of the neighbouring hotel for " five 
o'clock," others to the Club, hundreds take the trams to 
Middelkerke and back; thousands stroll along the digue 
slowly towards the harbour mouth, and thereby get an 
appetite for dinner. 

A couple of hours later the mondaines and demi-mondaines, 
the ** society " women of all nations, will have once more 
changed their dresses, and the smart and elegant toilettes 
seen on the race-course and at *'five o'clock" will have 
given place to the magnificent evening-dresses, which 
represent le dernier cri in fashionable extravagance. 

As the dinner hour approaches, the digue becomes 
thronged with crowds who do not dine, or who have dined 
early in order that they may come and gaze at the diners in 
the shop-window-like restaurants of the great hotels. In 
these one sees gathered, within a foot of the open or closed 
windows (as the night may warrant), the well-dressed 
Englishwoman, the smart American, the chic Parisienne, 
and the elegant Viennese, with a sprinkling of women of 
the theatres and music halls of most European capitals, 
who in ultra.- decolletee gowns and large hats sit at the 
window-tables and laugh at the often caustic comments of 
the good-natured crowd of onlookers. 

Not much before nine these diners take their way along 
the digue to the Kursaal, where one of the finest orchestras 
in Europe, whose musicians possess portentously expansive 
shirt-fronts, has been already for an hour or so interpreting 
the masterpiece of musical composers ranging from Mozart, 
Beethoven, Gounod, and Wagner to Sullivan, Costa, 
Waldteufel, Strauss, and Lenar. Others will drop in at the 
Theatre Royal, or at the Scala Music Hall, where there is 
usually a smart " revue " with a risque *' book," or a ballet 
notable for pretty women and daring costumes. 

Towards midnight, after the music-hall and theatre, there 
will be a flow of people, not yet tired with the amusements 
of an Ostend day, to the brilliantly lighted and gay Grand 
Cafe de la Terrasse. Here, in the season, from seven 
o'clock onwards, until one almost begins to think of dawn, 
will be gathered a truly cosmopoHtan throng, grouped at 
scores of small tables for two or four or more persons, 
listening to an excellent orchestra of scarlet-clad musicians, 
whose repertoire comprises excerpts from all modern operas 



^ 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 63 

and musical plays, classical selections, and original com- 
positions of native and foreign composers. To most visitors 
to Ostend the gigantic and gorgeously attired frame, and 
genial and expansive smile of Auguste, the negro major- 
domo of the cafe, is, v^e fancy, well known. He smiles and 
chats, sells picture-postcards of himself, of Ostend baigneuses, 
of the Kursaal, and jokes freely with all the patrons, con- 
tributing not a little to the easy good fellowship which 
usually prevails. It is impossible to be incensed by Auguste's 
chaff. One can only be envious at the impression he 
creates upon susceptible ladies ! 

Other folk will have made their way for supper, and to 
see a phase of reckless and extravagant life, to Maxim's, 
which is but an echo, however, of the famous resorts of the 
same name in Paris and Vienna. Here one meets some of 
the habitues of the Paris house, of the Cafe American, of the 
Maison Doree, and Cafe Anglais. Elegant women, well- 
groomed men. The one displaying wonderful toilettes from 
the Maison Doucet, Worth's, Lucille's, and Paquin's upon 
figures made familiar by picture-postcards, and the latter 
apparently intent upon spending money and seeing dawn 
break in lively company. 

But by this time most Ostenders have retired to rest. 
Along the digue, watching the moonlight upon the water, 
or the incoming or outgoing fishing fleet, may be a few 
sentimental folk. But the bulk of holiday-makers are 
already in bed ; the belated waiters in the big hotels are 
yawning horribly; the lift-man of the Splendide is even 
sleepy, and quietude at last falls over the town. 

Considering the inrush of population during the season, 
the fact that ruffians and blacklegs congregate, as they 
always will where pleasure and money rule, Ostend is 
wonderfully well-conducted after dark. Few disturbances 
take place in the streets, and what goes on inside the walls 
of the tiny " Clubs Prives," many of which are said to exist 
and flourish amazingly during the months of July and 
August, and other houses need not trouble us. 

The Palais du Roi, during the late King's Hfetime, always 
had an especial interest for Americans, and old ladies wbo 
wished to be shocked. Various and lurid were the tales 
told by communicative hotel porters and old visitors to the 
innocent stranger of the iniquities which those walls could 



64 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



reveal if only they had tongues ! Every lady ever seen 
walking in the pleasant grounds, which can be overlooked 
from the steam-tramcars, was open to suspicion. Half the 
theatrical stars of Paris have been reputed to be guests at 
the Palais du Roi at one time or another. Orgies unsur- 
passed by the ingenious and decadent functions devised by 
the smart set of New York were said to take place each time 
the late King was in residence. And almost everyone pro- 
fessed to believe the tales. We remember a dear old lady 
at table d'hote assuring us that there were '* terrible goings 
on," which only her innate and old-fashioned modesty 
prevented her describing in detail. But nevertheless King 
Leopold, whose tall, spare figure and patriarchal white 
beard were familiar to most tourists during each summer 
season, and to most of the inhabitants of the town he did 
much to create and advance to prosperity, was an immensely 
popular person. It was only the official class, and the old 
nobility who took his — it must be confessed — numerous 
peccadilloes very seriously. The average Belgian always 
seemed, in conversation at least, to esteem the King a rather 
fine fellow. '* A man of ajfaires to his finger-tips," declared 
a well-known Belgian journalist to us. Adding, with a 
shrug of the shoulders, ** But it is a pity he is not more 
serious in other matters." 

Children, who knew nothing of " the Baroness," of Cleo de 
Merode, and their fascinating rivals, or of the Congo, loved 
the King, for he had a pleasant way of patting curly heads 
he met on the digue, and of greeting all sorts and condi- 
tions of men unceremoniously. 

But, after all, Ostend does not consist entirely of digue, 
huge hotels, and the brilliant and expensive gaiety of its 
fashionable visitors. There is much to interest the quieter 
type of visitor in the life of the older portion of the town, in 
the back streets behind the colossal hotels. 
' Indeed, in these by-ways, in the market, and on the 
quays of the harbour may be found many interesting and 
picturesque peeps and sights such as artists love. Among 
others, vistas of shipping, fishing-boats with rust-red sails, 
and with smoke-blue and tanned nets triced up to dry ; 
quaint little dog-drawn milkcarts with shining brass cans, 
and the old women who so frequently trudge alongside of 
them with quaint Flanders caps and wooden sabots ; whilst 



^ 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 65 

the market-women of the Marche aux Herbes, the fisher- 
men of the quays and Marche aux Poissons near the New 
Basin, the seamen of the docks, and the country-folk who 
flock into the town in all the glory of best clothes and spot- 
less caps on Sundays and fetes, are picturesque and quaint. 

• The different sieges Ostend has undergone have left it 
with few old buildings, so that lit ,le of interest exists for the 
antiquarian. The ancient church of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
which dates from the middle of the eleventh century, stand- 
ing in the corner of the Place Prince Baudouin, was 
destroyed by fire fifteen years ago. Only a fragment of the 
old building remains, a gaunt, spectre-like relic of a bygone 
age associated with the little fishing hamlet of the past, and 
seeming to be strangely incongruous with the fashionable 
and flourishing town of to-day. 

The parks of Ostend give a pleasant change from the 
sun-smitten plage and, with their waving trees, brilliant 
" carpet "-bedding, and sheets of ornamental water, provide 
object lessons of the triumph of men's horticultural skill 
and energy over Nature's inhospitable and arid sands. 

Along the Belgian littoral, both east and west of Ostend, 
are scattered several seaside resorts, to which come year by 
year visitors in increasing numbers. None are so noted 
as their great sister, and the cost of living and fashion- 
ableness decreases the further one gets east or west of 
Ostend itself. 

A delightful place is Blankenberghe, which lies some 
thirteen miles to the east of Ostend, with a quaint harbour, 
and a fine digue. To reach it, what better way than a 
walk along the coast, amid the sand-hills in the bracing air 
which comes off the sea even on a hot day ? But for those 
to whom the enterprise would seem too adventurous there is 
the tramway, and for more energetic mortals the fine 
cycling and motor road now connecting the two towns. 

Set amid the sand-hills as one spins along, one comes 
across the outposts of resorts to be, or of those already in 
the making, in the shape of quaintly designed villas, each 
with its garden space of yellow sand, in which trees and 
flowers are being coaxed to grow with all the faith that 
seems to possess the Belgian gardener and proprietor on 
this stretch of sandy coast. Bathing, golf, and lawn tennis 
seem to be the staple amusements when one has referred to 
5 



66 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the desperate battle with the sand that amateur and other 
gardeners seem always to be waging. From balconies and 
window-sills of these villas flutter not flags of welcome, as 
the short-sighted stranger might imagine as he glides along 
in motor, train, or on his bicycle. The red, blue, grey, 
green, turquoise, white, black and orange banners are but 
the bathing costumes of the inhabitants hung out to dry ! 
Prosaic explanation of so triumphal a possibility. 

There is little of interest on the landward side on the way 
to Blankenberghe. The soil is arid, and the surface flat, 
with here and there a stunted tree, a cafe restaurant, and an 
isolated villa. As one speeds past Coq sur Mer, and pretty 
Wendune, which is endeavouring to become a small Ostend, 
where quite smart toilettes are worn by lady visitors, and 
men are known to dress for dinner, one is lost in wonder at 
the faith and enterprise which has called into existence 
*' resorts " upon these bleak and desolate sand-dunes. 

Blankenberghe proves charming on acquaintance. At the 
back of the town lies the little Bassin or harbour into which 
the hundred or so of fishing-boats run through a narrow 
neck of sea between the jetties in bad weather. The front 
of the town is on the digue, with a network of quaintly narrow 
and somewhat ill-paved streets stowed away in the rear 
some twenty feet below its level. The charming villas and 
huge hotels which stretch for more than a mile along the 
digue form a satisfactory and imposing barrier to the seas 
which, when the north-east or north winds blow, rush in 
mountainous masses of water and foam across the wide 
expanse of sandy shore. 

Blankenberghe is in a sense " Ostend in little." Its villas 
are quite as quaint, box-like and prettily garlanded during 
the season with a profusion of flowers. Its hotels are 
almost equally well-appointed, and more comfortable and 
moderate in their charges, if not so vast. There is no 
** Splendide," no " Royal Palace " at Blankenberghe (or 
was not last year ; who knows what may have happened j 
since then?), but there are several "Grands" and an| 
** Ocean." All much frequented and delightfully situated. 

Of late years there have, so we are told, been less English 
at Blankenberghe than formerly. The mark of the Teuton, 
and especially of the Jewish Teuton, is rather in evidence 
nowadays on the Front, and in the restaurants of the cafds 



Ji 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 67 

and hotels. And when this is so it would appear that the 
English are apt to depart. No one, we fancy, regrets the 
exchange more than the hotel proprietors, most of whom 
appear to have no particular love for the invading Germans. 

" Blankenberghe," said one to us, as we stood on the 
digue discussing the change which had come over the place 
since we first knew it, '' is not so much the resort of Enghsh 
and Americans as formerly. It has become less unconven- 
tional, and at the same time more common. Of course, a 
large number of English still come to us. But they are 
those who have been driven away from Ostend by the high 
prices, or because there is no room for them. They are not 
the people who used to come because they liked the greater 
quiet and freedom of our Blankenberghe. The English — 
whose men seldom dressed for dinner, whose women wore 
linen dresses or blue serge all day long, and only of an 
evening or on Sunday dressed in anything at all elegant — 
they, many of them, nowadays go to Heyst and even to 
Knocke. I wish they would come back !" And the speaker 
sighed. 

But " our Blankenberghe " might well be resorted to again 
by the English. It is so fresh, and if its women visitors 
(and some of the men who wear immaculate white boots, 
flannels and yachting-caps in the morning, and panamas 
with the same clothes m the afternoon, and swallow-tails and 
expansive shirt-fronts, with big diamond studs, and carry 
crush opera hats on the digue of an evening) are " playing 
up " to the Ostend standard of plutocratic elegance — well, 
what matter ? As an American girl remarked to us at the 
Casino : *' Some of them are funny enough for fits." 

Just the same life goes on along the plage as at Ostend. 
Only the ladies' bathing costumes are more decorous, and 
Blankenberghe has its " Rotten Row " along the fine 
stretch of sand from the Estacade towards Zee-Brugge. 
Near the Estacade on fine days are a score of horses, 
ponies, and mules for hire, and they find many patrons. 
Even a donkey-ride at Blankenberghe is modish, and gay 
parties of horsemen and horsewomen gallop and amble over 
the widely stretching yellow sands on fine afternoons. 
Riding-habits appear to be only de rigueur for the early morn- 
ing gallops of serious equestrians, and the same may be 
said regarding the attire of the men. Later in the day. 



68 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

'*free and easy" is the style ; muslin dresses, drill costumes, 
serge coats and skirts for the ladies. Tennis flannels, 
" Norfolk " knickerbocker suits (with or without gaiters) and 
even yachting attire, for the men ! And what treacherous 
pranks the North Sea wind sometimes plays with the 
diaphanous garments of the joyful, laughter - provoking 
equestriennes ! What glimpses one gets of those flimsy 
high-heeled shoes with pointed toes, of chrome or tan 
leather beloved of Parisiennes ! Of fragile openwork hose, 
of tempestuous petticoats which rival the rainbow in colour, 
or, if white, challenge by their diaphanousness the silvery 
foam which a north-easter sends scurrying along the angry 
water's edge in flocculent masses. 

Then there is the excitement of angling from the brick 
and stone groynes or jetty. How patient the Belgian angler 
is ! Like his Parisian prototype. One may go away from 
Blankenberghe with every prospect of coming back to find 
him still angling from the jetty or groynes, say a dozen 
seasons hence. 

Then there is the steeplechasing on bicycles over the 
rounded brick groynes, which run along the coast from the 
Estacade towards Zee-Brugge ; though the sport is " rough " 
on the tyres and the welded steel of the frames. 

From such amusements and scenes of lively enjoyment 
and gaiety, it is a great transition to the deserted church- 
yard, high grown with weeds, and filled with melancholy, 
decaying monuments, and earthward-inclining tombstones. 
Off the tin wreaths of immortelles the sea-air, frost and sun, 
have ruthlessly stripped the paint, until only a flake here 
and there remains in contrast with the red rust. The glass 
domes of the boxes under which waxen or tin floral offerings 
are enshrined, as though for forcing, is dull with salt, and 
desolation reigns. The old brick church, with its huge 
cracks in the outer walls, and staring whitewash within — in 
process of restoration, we believe — is not less melancholy 
and desolate. A derelict house of God set in a sea of rank 
green-grey grass, amid shoals of neglected and unattended 
graves and tombstones. 

And yet this ancient churchyard carries its lesson, and 
sometimes, though not often, we fancy, the young and 
frivolous visitor will enter the gates ; and a Parisian 
toilette, modern with the modernness of to-morrow, will be 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 69 

trailed amid the tombs. Or some bent crone will be found 
at sunset rambling amid them, seeking some half-forgotten 
grave. 

This, we confess, was the only church in Blankenberghe 
which interested us ; and with the little greengrocer's shop 
in the old street, with its red-tiled roof and quaint gables, 
just across the open space near the tiny Bassin de Retenue 
in which the fishing fleet is berthed, forms almost all that 
now remains of the Blankenberghe of but a few years ago. 

But Blankenberghe is a delightful and engaging holiday 
resort for all that, and from it, as we have several times 
proved, many interesting places may be reached by cycling 
along passable, if not altogether good, roads. 

Eastward, along the coast, lies the little town and pleasant 
plage of Heyst, on which brown-sailed, bluff-bowed trawlers 
run in calm seas to discharge their catch. 

Heyst, we were compelled to come to the conclusion, is 
inaptly named. It is delightful, tranquil, even slow. It is 
in its infancy of development. It is distinctly in no hurry. 
It is a place to which the quiet folk have been driven by the 
incessant stir, gaiety, and life of Ostend, and the less mere- 
tricious (but now too formal) joys of Blankenberghe. It 
has a digue of its own, somewhat irregular of surface in 
places as yet ; and a fine stretch of plage, sand-dunes 
cemented together with coarse grass and heather-like 
growth, and there are quite good hotels, as we found out, 
and moderate charges. But Heyst has yet to be. Along 
the unsophisticated front wander gipsy musicians, and a 
fiddler makes a good living by playing for coppers outside 
the villas and hotel windows. But these things are the 
evidences of tranquillity and not of fashion, of delight and 
not of grandeur. Here come yearly an increasing number 
of English visitors. Indeed, the language of the plage 
during the bathing hour seemed chiefly one's native tongue, 
and that odd experimental French of people practising. 
Here and there a Teutonic outHne would appear clad in all 
its rotundity of male or female form in protesting bathing 
costume. But Heyst seeemed to us quite English in all 
save its architecture, its fisher-folk, and somewhat solitary 
cabman. 

Upon the wide stretch oi plage people were bathing as we 
sat on one of the groynes and watched a fishing-boat making 



70 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

for land under easy sail with trawl out. The costumes of 
the lady bathers were not of lace and silk, as are so many 
at Ostend, but in twill and serge of decorous but by no 
means unmeritorious designs, and of quite brightening 
colour scheme. Far out bobbed what at first looked like a 
buoy. A brilliant vermilion note in a sage-green sea. But 
it was a girl, swimming as no one is allowed to swim at 
more sophisticated Ostend. A sapphire-garbed nymph with 
her companion, a male of athletic physique, rushed past us, 
sprang down five feet or so on to the plage, and raced sea- 
ward, laughing. ''Anglais,'^ laconically remarked a native 
of pronounced proportions to her daughter at the other end 
of the seat. The bathers had come from the tiny band-box 
of a villa, a strip of red-brick masonry sandwiched in between 
an hotel and another villa. A poor wee squeezed thing, 
which had a look of protest about its neat, stone-dressed 
face, and in its elongated windows, which looked like startled 
eyes. 

Yes, we thought, Heyst is delightful. It is informal. 
One could even venture to wear a last year's gown or an old 
suit on the digue itself, and amid the quietude of the 
environing sand-dunes far less. 

The sand has been conquered in a measure at Heyst, and 
something here and there has been made to grow. But it 
is bracing rather than beautiful, though under a grey sky it 
has a certain picturesqueness of which brilliant sunlight is 
apt to rob it. 

Pretty villas are springing up amid the dunes, set a 
little way inland, and in the gardens in esse surrounding them 
we caught sight of English children at play, the overflow of 
infantile humanity from the sea-front villas and hotels. 

A little way along the coast, reached by one of the better 
class of Belgian roads with a good cycling track running 
alongside it, and one impinges upon the Dutch frontier. 
Knocke is to Heyst what Blankenberghe is to Ostend. It 
is just the same little distance — in proportion — down the 
scale of fashionableness. Knocke is year by year obtaining 
more and more support from English visitors. It is a 
quaint place — the sand lies in its main street of approach — 
where flourish pensions teeming with children who greet 
one with shouts of welcome as one cycles by. From many 
of the pensions, too, we noticed, came the sounds of phono- 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 71 

graphs and gramophones playing excerpts from British 
musical comedies and American band selections. 

The cabs are ancient at Knocke. They did not appear to 
be doing any great business. Perhaps people were afraid 
to go far in them ! The digue is still in the making, but 
digues rise almost as quickly as mushrooms along this coast, 
and we may even as we write be doing the little place an 
injustice in this respect. The architecture of the front is of 
that unclassic irregularity which denotes the work of many 
minds, and a desire for variety. And the result had a 
quaintness which is attractive. The plage is goodly to look 
upon. On it croquet players, lawn-tennis players, and 
even golfers and bowlers disport themselves. And if the 
tennis balls twist, and break away half a metre more than 
they should — well, what matter ? it adds to sport and makes 
the players, be they girls or men, '' extend themselves," as a 
French acquaintance phrased it. And should a croquet 
ball disappear in the hoof-mark left by a bathing-machine 
horse — well, again, as my French acquaintance (who must 
have been a philosopher) said : '* one knows where it is." 

We were forced whilst breathing the bracing air of 
Knocke, and gazing out over a beautiful expanse of sapphire 
sea, just broken here and there by plumes of white, to agree 
with the philosopher, who finally remarked : " Life is long 
enough for such small contretemps as these." 

One should see Knocke in sunset glow. Then the little 
place, with its windmill, its fields which lie at the back behind 
the dunes, its white cottages, its straggling street, its air of 
unconsidered planning, is really beautiful. And the fisher- 
folk, both men and women, are picturesque and virile ; and 
some of the girls really handsome. Knocke, quaint and 
struggling to evolve into a resort, is just the place for 
tired folk, and children, for whom the yellow sands and 
lapping waves, and sea and sky are ever new. All these 
things are found at Knocke, as yet not spoiled by too much 
of human contact. 

From Knocke it is but a matter often miles or so to Sluys. 
The quaint old stranded seaport, with its irregular mass of 
houses and fourteenth-century belfry, the town now only 
connected with the sea by canal. 

To hark back westward of Ostend along the sea-coast there 
is less to interest one. One finds some miniature Ostends 



72 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

— Mariakerke, Middelkerke, Westende, Nieuport, and La 
Panne — but if one except the two last none of them have the 
charm of Blankenberghe, Heyst, or Knocke, or the pictur- 
esqueness of the latter. 

Mariakerke is now a suburb of Ostend itself, having been 
incorporated with its great neighbour ten years or more ago. 
The ride along the beautifully - paved digue is one to 
delight the heart of cyclist, though to trudge it may make 
weary the feet of pedestrian. There is nothing of interest 
in the new Mariakerke to which one comes. It consists of 
hotels, pensions, and villas one or two streets deep along 
the sea-front stretching out, as it were, importuning hands 
to Ostend. But a picturesque bit of old Mariakerke lies 
half hidden behind the sand-dunes, consisting of a quaint 
towered church and a group of red-roofed dwellings of 
fisher-folk and small farmers. As one speeds along this 
incomparable beach - fringed coast with the salt sea air 
banishing fatigue and ennui, one comes to the hains de mer of 
Middelkerke, with its hotels and villas set on top of the sand- 
dunes. Middelkerke boasts a Kurhaus ; but, although some 
fashionable folk resort to the little town, they seem to slough 
the trappings of convention and the toilettes of the boule- 
vards. As one approaches the first houses upon the little 
digue one passes the lonely cabin in which is housed the 
watchman of the submarine cables, one of the arteries of 
commerce traversing the bottom of the North Sea. A little 
thing and the communication of nations is cut. One man to 
watch the wire along which passes almost each moment 
throughout the twenty-four hours of each day the news of 
nations and commercial transactions involving great issues. 

As we sped by we wondered if the solitary watcher ever 
speculated over what was passing along the cable he guards. 
He gazed out over the sea in the oncoming dusk with eyes 
which told nothing save perhaps a desire to know what 
weather was in the keeping of to-morrow. He touched his 
cap in mechanical civility, and turned away to his charge. 
A picture of lonely responsibility that was not unimpressive. 

Of Westendes there are two. The old set inland ; the 
new on the sea-front. The latter — as we saw it at sunset on a 
summer's evening — ^not without charm of a kind ; quietude 
and even an air of picturesqueness hanging about its villas 
amid the sand-dunes, and softening the too new architecture 



SOME SEASIDE TOWNS 73 

of its hotels and pensions. There are, indeed, really quite 
charming villas at Westende, and boundaries are almost 
unknown. We rode a few feet off the brick cycling track 
amid the thick sown houses and found ourselves in someone's 
garden, negotiating the stooping figure of a gardener and 
the corner of a flower-bed, whose flowers were carrying on a 
gallant struggle against the invading sand. The man did not 
seem surprised — probably, indeed the thing often happened 
— but gave us a pleasant ^^ Bon soir,'' and smiled wearily. 

On our twilight way to Nieuportville (leaving pleasant La 
Panne on the sea-coast near the French frontier) and the 
charming village of the same name secreted inland amid the 
sand-dunes, one remembered vaguely that two hundred and 
fifty years ago these same sandy stretches, and flat arid 
fields were the battle-ground in a struggle between the 
Dutch under Prince Maurice of Orange, and their Spanish 
foes led by the Archduke Albert. 

Sometimes, so we were told, the tiller of the ungrateful 
soil turns up casques, halberts, and swords of long ago, 
which are handled with appraising irreverence and ultimately 
find their way to the curiosity-mongers of Ostend and 
Bruges. 



CHAPTER IV 

ALONG OLD ROADS IN WEST FLANDERS AND HAINAULT TO 

COURTRAI 

THE road to Nieuport C'ville" not "bains") along 
which we sped in the dusk of a July evening, with the 
fields going a grey-green in the fading light, and the 
white-walled cottages looking almost ghostly set amid the 
environing pastures, is not a too excellent one. The cyclist 
track proved to be worn into holes, which a sharp shower or 
two that had swept inland from the sea had filled. But the 
air was fresh with just a touch of salt in it, and the scent of the 
earth good. Just as dusk was falling we reached the canal 
stretching like a silver-grey ribbon eastward to join the 
one to distant Bruges. Then, on the other hand, a vista of 
the Yser was caught on its way to the sea at Nieuport-Bains, 
with barges and fisher-craft making up it to their berths 
alongside the wooden quays, where several steamers lay 
bulking large in the faint yellow evening light. 

It was a quaint town into which we rode. A place of 
unexpected culs-de-sac ; ill-paved for the most part and 
already half-asleep, though the hour was but nine or there- 
abouts. As luck would have it, the hotel we had chosen 
(because Baedeker put it first), which we found with some 
difiiculty, had an air of sleep and even desertion that was 
depressing to weary and hungry travellers. We looked 
at it. 

Not a light was to be seen. We knocked upon the old 
door at the top of some crumbling steps. No one came. 

Then a passing citizen told us it was "/frm^." It had 
failed to attract sufficient customers. Few people, we were 
told, came nowadays to Nieuport to stay save artists, 
since that there was a Nieuport-Bains with " attrac- 

74 



ALONG OLD ROADS 75 

tions." And so the Hotel de FEsperance, which in truth had 
been our sheet-anchor for bed and board, was — "/^rm^." 

** Try the hotel, messieurs, near the quay and tramway," 
our informant advised. But he added the cold comfort that 
it might be full, as there had been a wedding — such a wed- 
ding ! (and he lifted his hands) — that afternoon. 

Over the roughly-paved streets, round what seemed to be 
innumerable corners, we rode, and then the gaily-lighted 
fagade of the hotel appeared welcome enough before us. 
The place was in an uproar. But luckily we could have the 
one room that was vacant. We were honoured, because it 
had been the chamber of the bridegroom the night before ! 

Oh, the importance of this wedding ! The chambermaid, 
a buxom damsel, ample of figure, and pleasant if not lovely 
of face, talked of it on the way to our apartment on the 
third floor, where mosquito-blinds in the windows made us 
apprehensive — unnecessarily, as it proved — of a night made 
restless by these pests, which in Belgium and Holland 
flourish along the canals and in the towns intersected by 
them. The waitress who brought in the soup tureen of 
mussels, the well-cooked steak, the spinach with eggs, the 
salad which she dressed in front of us, whilst talking of the 
sweetness of the bride and the goodness of the groom, who 
had but an hour or so before sped away to Paris C*Oh, 
Paris is a wonderful city, and so far away, so very far 
distant," the maid volunteered), was full of the wedding. 
And so was the proprietor, who looked in to see that we 
were properly served. He positively beamed, for the hotel, 
which stood at the corner of a strangely deserted street, we 
warrant had not been so completely filled with guests for 
many a long day. 

Through the blue-grey obscurity of the unlighted streets we 
afterwards made our way towards the murmurous sounds of 
gathered people. Beneath a triumphal arch we passed into 
a by-street. Green garlands hung from rickety " masts," up 
which adventurous gamins, and even gamines, were climbing 
in the endeavour to see what was going on in one of the old 
mansions of long ago, now a blaze of light, which contrasted 
strongly with the darkness of the streets. 

We knew, but we asked the solitary gendarme, a tallish, 
stout man, resplendent in his best clothes : 

** What is in progress, monsieur ?" 



76 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

He replied : " Is it possible that monsieur has not heard ? 
To-day is the wedding of Dr. X. and Mile. B. Dr. X., he 
indeed is a fine fellow. I have known him years, monsieur. 
And Mile. B. ? Ah ! pretty? Yes, and good — so charitable 
to the poor ! So religious ! It is well for women to be so. 
She will be missed — yes, sorely missed. They had known 
each other from childhood. It was very touching. He went 
away to Paris to study medicine ; now he has come back 
and carried away the most charming young lady in Nieuport. 
Yes, surely." 

And then we learned that the whole of the gendarmerie 
and twenty old people had been entertained to breakfast. 
The stout gendarme did not say he was the only custodien de la 
vilUy but we suspected he was. The feast provided for these 
twenty-one people seemed to bulk Gargantuan in his mind. 
Nieuport had not had such gaiety for years ! 

Every now and again through the curtained doorway of 
the house where the reception was being held came the faint 
sound of a tiny orchestra struggling to make its music heard 
above the hum of conversation and laughter of the guests. 
The strains of the '* Merry Widow " waltz floated out, and 
the crowd stopped its scuffling and movement to listen. 

" Hush," exclaimed our friend the gendarme, as though 
some sacred rite were in progress, " Monsieur le Maire is 
dancing!" 

We hope our smile escaped his notice ; we think it did, 
for the curtain fell once more across the doorway as two of 
the guests stepped out on to the sidewalk to take the air. 
The bare white arms and shoulders of the girl, who was 
decolletee with the recklessness of a well-formed provincial 
copying the fashion of the metropolis, competed for notice 
with the gay ribbon and " decoration " on the lapel of the 
coat of her escort. 

^* You would think mademoiselle were about to wash her- 
self," remarked a bare-headed girl of sixteen or so, with a 
smile which showed a perfect row of white teeth. 

" Monsieur de K.," remarked the woman at her side, " is 
fine to-night with his decoration. He is a handsome parti 
for any woman." 

We stood in the narrow, ancient street till the crowd 
began to thin. The gendarme yawned discreetly behind a 
huge hand gloved in white cotton. 



ALONG OLD ROADS 77 

*' You are staying here, monsieur, with monsieur your 
compatriot ?" he asked. And when we shook our heads, he 
hazarded the opinion that we were Americans. It is always, 
one saw, the Americans who move on. 

Leaving our gendarme, we made our way through the now 
rapidly thinning throng back to our hotel. The proprietor 
was eager to know what we had seen ; but we were tired, 
and climbed up to our room. 

We fell asleep. There was nothing in the appearance of 
the hotel to suggest to the mind of the most nervous of 
persons that it was haunted. The fitful moonlight of a 
cloudy summer's night lay in a patch on the floor, where it 
fell through a gap in the tiled roof between the quaintly 
shaped chimneys. Suddenly we were aroused by a sense of 
some one's presence, and, upon opening our eyes, we saw 
standing at the bedside a white figure, which was bending 
towards the bed and seeking to search for something under 
the pillow. Then something was dragged forth (it was not 
our watch or purse), and the figure turned to depart. By 
that time we were thoroughly aroused. 

" Halte la !" we cried out. The figure stopped and 
turned. 

Then it spoke rapidly, and with many and profuse 
apologies explained that *' it," the best man of the wedding, 
had occupied the room the previous night, and that a forget- 
ful chambermaid had left *' its" pyjamas beneath the pillow 
instead of removing them to the other room. 

" I thought, monsieur," said the young fellow contritely, 
" that I could remove them without disturbing your rest. 
But monsieur is a light sleeper !" 

And with these words the embarrassed intruder vanished. 

In the morning Monsieur le Proprietaire and his good and 
substantially built better-half were profuse in their apologies. 
The former called le visiteur by some uncommonly violent 
and uncomplimentary names. We only smiled, and sug- 
gested that had the episode taken place in an American hotel, 
le visiteur might have been shot. " Quel horreur !" ex- 
claimed madame, turning pale ; adding ; " But yes, 
monsieur, you are a brave man. Certainly, you are a 
brave man !" 

Nieuport is one of those strange, almost dead townlets 
which lie scattered so thickly in West Flanders. It has a 



78 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

past ; its present is peaceful and untroubled ; its future — 
who can tell ? Nieuport-Bains has drawn away so many of 
those who used to frequent it, for even artists nowadays 
(so we learned) " paint at Nieuport and sleep at Nieuport- 
Bains." But those to whom an old Flemish seaport has 
attractions the newer Nieuport will not seduce. There is 
not a little of interest and much that is picturesque in the 
life of Yser, into which, with the flowing tide, steal red- 
sailed fishing-craft, and cargo steamers of some considerable 
tonnage to discharge their burdens of fish, timber, cement, 
coal, or bricks alongside the wooden quays. The Nieuport 
fishermen, too, are a fine and hardy and picturesque race, 
such as painters love, and the " fine ladies of fashionable 
Nieuport-Bains," when they visit the older town, regard 
with scarce concealed admiration. 

In the narrow streets, ill-paved and undulating strangely, 
which lead from the quays to the grass-grown Market Place, 
where are many quaint old houses, several of the larger — 
old-time mansions when Nieuport was a place of note — are 
surrounded by picturesque, old-fashioned gardens, and shut 
in by crumbling walls. Through a gap in one of these we 
caught sight of a garden rich in colouring, where roses red 
and yellow, and pink, and white were blooming; jasmine 
was climbing over an arbour ; and sunflowers and hollyhocks 
flourished statelily. And almost clinging to the skirts of 
this bower of colour and fragrance were hovels scarcely fit 
for the habitation of men and women, made malodorous by 
the fish which were threaded on skewers and hung in the 
windows to dry,, or upon strings in the rooms of the houses 
themselves. Almost every house of the poorer sort seemed 
to be a fish-curing establishment upon a small scale. It was 
evidently one of the " features" of the place. 

Along one of the switchback streets one reaches the wide 
Market Place, deserted on all the days we have seen it, 
save for an occasional pedestrian, or a wandering motor, 
which, bound for Nieuport-Bains, had lost its bearings. Of 
the old ninth-century castle fortress, which did good service 
against the aggressive Normans in long-past times, not a 
trace remains. But near by this Market Place, in which 
apparently markets are no longer or seldom held, stand the 
fifteenth-century Cloth Hall, and the massive baroque bell 
tower of long ago. The outside of the ancient and fine 



ALONG OLD ROADS 79 

Gothic church, which is also on the Market Place, has a 
sadly neglected air. Even the trees that stud what was 
perhaps once an enclosed churchyard seem uncared for, and 
look as though they had been the sport of the fierce North 
Sea wind, though affording a welcome shade. But within 
the building, which we fancy many are, from the unprepos- 
sessing exterior, deterred from entering, there are some 
treasures which will reward the curious. Among them is a 
beautiful example of Renaissance screens, and an ancient 
rood-loft. It is not the original one, of which the doorway 
and the attached shafts at the side of it remain, but the old 
Gothic design was followed. Upon the central panel of the 
projecting ambon there is a standing figure of the Saviour, 
with His right hand uplifted and His left clasping an orb. 
In the niches on either side are figures of the Apostles, each 
separated by very chaste composite pillarets. 

There are two interesting altarpieces on either side of the 
entrance, one representing the Trinity with the figure of our 
Lord seated and crowned with thorns, and holding the reed 
in His hand ; with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove 
hovering in the clouds. Above all is the figure of the 
Eternal Father, represented as an aged man with out- 
stretched hands. A work which cannot fail to arouse 
interest in the minds of all those for whom antiquity and 
ecclesiastical relics have a charm. 

The subject of the other altarpiece is Our Lady of Seven 
Dolours, and represents the Holy Mother seated with her 
breast pierced by seven swords in conventional manner. 
Over her hovers a dove encircled by rays. 

Competent authorities incline to the belief that the 
screen, the tabernacle for the Reserved Sacrament, and other 
furniture, were placed in the church at about the same 
period (probably somewhere in the early half of the fifteenth 
century), to take the place of others which had been de- 
stroyed, possibly at the time of one of the sieges of the town, 
or during an outburst of iconoclastic zeal such as took 
place in our own land during the dominance of the 
Puritans. 

The choir stalls, which are very tasteful, should not be 
overlooked, and there is some passable stained glass, and 
several ancient tombs. 

The Hotel de Ville contains some pictures, a few of which 



8o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

are interesting as, at least, reputed examples of the early 
Flemish school. Of the Templar's Castle nothing but the 
donjon remains ; the rest was destroyed more than five 
centuries ago, when the Ghent burghers and the EngUsh 
joined forces and burned the town. 

Fewer folk even than those visiting Nieuport go to 
quaint, dull Furnes, which only seems to awaken into 
semblance of active life on the last Sunday in July of each 
year, as it has done since the twelfth century. Then takes 
place that great procession, to view which come the butter- 
flies of Ostend, the burghers of Bruges, Ghent, Courtrai, 
Tournai, and other towns, and the country-folk from far 
and wide. Through the ancient streets of Furnes, which 
for the rest of the year are frequented by few aliens, marches 
the great procession of members of the " Confrerie de la 
Sodalite," in costume depicting the Story of the Passion. It 
is an impressive sight, and those who are in the crowded 
streets, or amid the throng in the quaint old Grande Place, 
will not easily forget the experience. 

In the sixteenth-century Renaissance Hotel de Ville, 
which stands in the Grande Place, there are some exceed- 
ingly interesting wall-hangings of Spanish leather, and a 
notable chimneypiece with decorations attributed to 
Snyders, although examination does not tend to confirm 
the supposition that these representations of still-life are by 
that artist. The old Flemish tapestry, and particularly two 
doorways, are also worth notice. 

The Palais de Justice, formerly the old Chatellenie, 
erected from the designs of Sylvanus Boulin in 1612-1628, 
is of considerable interest. In the antechamber on the 
first floor the Inquisition used to hold its meetings. And 
tradition states it was also in this chamber that the rack 
and other horrible instruments were set up and torture 
inflicted. The Inquisition at the time of Alva seems to 
have been an unusually active and cruel institution, some 
of its victims being tortured and murdered as much for 
political as for pseudo-religious motives. The large paint- 
ing by Albert de Vriendt, a modern artist and of the 
school of Hendrik Leys, the founder of the so-called archaic 
school of painting, depicting Philippe le Bel taking the 
oath to preserve the liberties of Furnes in 1500, is a 
vigorous and interesting piece of work. One of the oldest 



ALONG OLD ROADS 8i 

Hotels de Ville in Belgium is to be seen in the Pavilion des 
Officiers Espagnols on the eastern side of the Grande Place. 
This building, now a library and the home of the municipal 
archives of Furnes, dates in part from the thirteenth 
century, and is interesting from its great antiquity. Furnes, 
of course, possesses a belfry, the massive tower of which, 
rising from behind the Palais de Justice, attracts attention 
immediately one enters the Market Place. 

The chief church — which stands upon the site of a ninth- 
century building founded by Baldwin of the Iron Arm, the 
founder also of the famous line of Counts of Flanders who 
in the tenth and eleventh centuries especially played an im- 
portant part in the history, especially of the north and 
western part, of what is now known as the Kingdom of 
Belgium — was commenced somewhere about the beginning 
of the fourteenth century. It was designed upon a scale of 
great size and magnificence ; but alas ! the resources of the 
burghers and ecclesiastics of Furnes were unequal to the 
task. Thus it is that St. Walburga's is incomplete, con- 
sisting merely of the choir and the chapels attached to it. 
It stands as a monument of unattained priestly ambition ; 
one of the few great churches in Belgium which fell far so 
short of their designer's plan. 

Quaint Furnes has many other attractions for artist and 
antiquarian, and those who linger at the Hotel de la Noble 
Rose just off the Market Place, whose fifteenth-century 
savour attracted us more than the hope of luxurious ac- 
commodation or epicurean delights, will discover for them- 
selves many charming survivals of the militant, busy, 
medieval town of long ago. 

It is pleasant though not direct going from Furnes to 
quaint Dixmude on the Yser. The country-side is pictur- 
esque, if flat, and one has not yet got quite away from 
the salt freshness of sea air, and the remembrance of sand- 
dunes. At Dixmude, as at Furnes, there is a wonderful 
Grande Place, looking vastly deserted in the evening light 
as we entered it by a roundabout way of the Petit Quay, 
which looks like a piece of Ghent in miniature. Many 
years ago — perhaps ages ago, indeed — there might have 
been the need of this Grande Place, out over which shone 

the discreetly bright beams from the Cafe de la Paix, 
6 



82 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Now one is tempted to wonder whether it is ever much 
frequented save perhaps at fair time. 

The key to the life of Dixmude of to-day seems given by 
the anciently picturesque windmill, which stands upon its 
grass-grown mound at the entrance to the town. The old 
mill is of the past, its timbers have weathered many a gale 
from the not far distant sea ; it has seen men come and go ; 
the marching of armies, the engaging and romantic strife 
of the Middle Ages (for the mill is many centuries old, we 
are informed), and like the town itself appears to be falling 
into that gentle decay which overtakes all somnolent and 
brooding things. It and the picturesque heguinagCf with 
its tiny double chapel squeezed in between the two rows of 
houses, and with a quaint triangular grass-plat in front of 
it, give a picturesque charm to one's initial explorations. 

Dixmude is a place in which to linger ; because it is one 
of the backwaters of modern life, where rest and even 
vegetating appear to be natural. 

The wonderful parish church of St. Nicholas, with houses 
almost built on its walls, is famous for its exquisite rood 
loft and screen ascribed to Urban Taillebert of Ypres. 
Amid the rich flamboyant carving of this, light with elegant 
tracery, like veritable filigree in stone, stand the figures of 
angels, saints and martyrs, with the great, sweet-toned organ 
above them all. 

The people of Dixmude are justly proud of their great 
church, and its beautiful Juhe, and as we sat in the caf6 
looking out across the wide Grande Place, silvered and 
made vaster and yet more mysterious by July moonlight, 
the one question which seemed to agitate the minds of the 
habitues, after they had enquired whence we had come, 
was, had we seen the Juhe ? 

"Ah, it is magnificent!" exclaimed one enthusiast, 
apparently the local shoemaker, putting down his glass and 
wiping his mouth. '* There is, messieurs, nothing like it," 
he paused, and then added confidently — " no, not in all 
Flanders." 

And, indeed, for beauty of design the rood screen of 
Dixmude cannot be easily excelled. Indeed, by many archi- 
tectural judges a verdict is given concerning it which 
closely coincides with that of the shoemaker. 

From Dixmude there are two routes to Ypres. One 



ALONG OLD ROADS 83 

travels back a mile or two towards Furnes, then running 
south-west to Loo, and on to Oost Vleteren, and then 
south-west to Ypres. The other (more direct) route runs 
almost due south from Dixmude to Boesinghe. This is a 
fine road most of the way, running through rich grazing 
land, and past many a dairy farm, the produce of which finds 
its way across the North Sea to London and other English 
markets. For quite a considerable distance the road runs 
alongside the canal, with pleasant fields on the right-hand 
as one travels towards Ypres, and a peaceful vista of white- 
walled farmsteads, and wide stretching lush fields on the 
left across the canal. 

To those who journey by road to Ypres, a word of warn- 
ing. One should seldom ask for a short cut in Belgium ; 
never, we think, on the way to Ypres. If the wayfarer 
should do so, whether he be on foot or on a cycle, he will 
inevitably be sent a rough road. If walking, it may not so 
much matter, because one sees the peasantry working in 
the fields and typical farmsteads ; but when one is cycling, 
then troubles commence. The route — called by our in- 
formant "la route la plus directe " — we were sent in search 
of, a delusive short cut, was most of the way but a track for 
carts across the fields, made in soft weather, one would 
judge, and hardened into treacherous and frame-twisting 
ruts by the summer sun ; in many places unridable, and not 
infrequently dangerous. On one side there was the canal, 
into which to plunge should a " wobble " occur, on the other 
a deep ditch full of brambles and stinging-nettles ! 

But Ypres, or Yperen, as it is called in Flemish, is well 
worth some trouble to reach. The wise wayfarer, however, 
will do well to avoid arriving late at night, for by half-past 
nine or ten o'clock (at least, such is our experience) most 
Ypres folk have sought their beds ; and even the hotel 
proprietors and sleepy " boots " will not allow their delight 
at seeing a stray tourist to evince itself too openly. 

Ypres, on the Yperlee, is one of the most interesting of 
West Flanders cities, and for an ancient town it is quite 
noticeable for the width and cleanliness of its main streets. 
Surrounding it are yet to be found some traces of the old 
fortifications, and two-thirds of the place are still encircled 
by ancient ramparts and a wide moat. Near the old and 
picturesque Porte de Lille, reached from the Grande Place 



84 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

by the Rue de Lille, swans swim in the weedy moat ; and 
in the tumbledown houses, some of them dating from the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, live the lace-makers, who 
sit at their open casements on fine, warm days, passing 
their multitudinous thread bobbins to and fro across the 
cushions, and chaffing the passers-by. 

Some of the girls have a pretty wit, as instanced by one 
who, sitting at her door with a girl companion, whom a 
passing sweep had offered to kiss, exclaimed, upon hearing 
her angry companion advise Jean to go and get washed 
before he offered to kiss a pretty girl : " Oh, Monsieur Jean 
never washes. He fears to catch a cold." 

This picturesque and fascinating town has nowadays, 
save at fair times, when the Grande Place blossoms with 
booths and gaily-painted roundabouts, and is thronged with 
merrymakers, an air of peace rather than industry. Indeed, 
it is almost impossible nowadays to realize that Ypres was 
once one of the wealthiest and most powerful commercial 
towns in Flanders, with a population of upwards of 200,000 
souls, and no less than 4,000 cloth-looms constantly at 
work. In the eleventh century the cloth-weavers of Ypres 
were famous. And so they remained until the siege of the 
town, and the burning of the suburbs by the aggressive 
burghers of Ghent in 1383. By the end of the fifteenth 
century the population of the once great city, owing to the 
devastations of the iconoclasts, plagues, and sieges, had 
fallen to a paltry 15,000. Nor were the years of the imme- 
diately succeeding century more favourable to the stricken 
town. During that period it was taken no less than four 
times by the French, who held it for three-quarters of a 
century. 

Should the wanderer reach Ypres after dusk, as we did, 
it will be with real delight that he views the Grande Place 
next morning, and looks upon the magnificent Hotel de 
Ville and Cloth Hall. One remembers it was in this Market 
Square that Philip Van Artevelde addressed the populace 
from a scaffolding, when he felt secure that the King of 
France, who, with his forces, threatened their liberties, 
would be unable to cross the river Lys. 
\ " Good people," he exclaimed, *' be not alarmed if the 
King of France shall march against us. He will never cross 
the Lys, as I have had all the passes well guarded, and 



ALONG OLD ROADS 85 

have ordered Peter du Bois to advance to Commines with a 
large body of brave men. He is a bold man, to whom the 
honour of Flanders is dear. I have sent Peter le Nuitre to 
Warneton, and broken down the bridges on the Lys, and 
there is neither pass nor ford but these two. Our friends in 
England are coming to help us. Keep, therefore, to your 
oaths sworn to us in the good town of Ghent ; and now let 
those who will maintain the rights and franchises of 
Flanders hold up their hands." 

There was for a moment a great silence, we are told, in 
the sunlit Grande Place, and then with a deafening shout 
the multitudes to a man held up their hands in sign of 
loyalty. When this had been done. Van Artevelde descended 
from his platform, and left Ypres for Gudenarde next day. 
But brave as had been the words of the famous burgher of 
Ghent, they were being falsified even whilst he was address- 
ing his fellow Flamands, just as across the North Sea the 
hopes of the downtrodden and cruelly-treated populace in 
England were being dashed to the ground by the murder of 
Wat the Tyler, their champion, in Smithfield. 

Not long and the forces of Charles VL, King of France, 
were overrunning Flanders, and the brave burghers of her 
chief cities were falling by the thousand. 

The Hotel de Ville and the Cloth Hall, which are under 
one vast roof, and were commenced by Count Baldwin of 
Flanders in the first year of the thirteenth century, form 
one of the largest buildings of its kind in Belgium. English 
people may gain some idea of its long frontage when it is 
remembered that it falls but a few feet short of that of the 
National Gallery. The building, which faces nearly north- 
east, and stands above an arcade abutting upon the more 
ancient Gothic structure, was finished about the middle of 
the seventeenth century, and although picturesque and 
interesting, is far less elegant and artistic than its beautiful 
neighbour, the general effect of which has undoubtedly been 
lessened by the filling-in of the square-headed colonnade at 
the base of the fa9ade. The effect has caused the design to 
appear rather flat, and deprived it of richness and of light- 
ness. It is easy to imagine, as one stands before the long 
fagade with its elegant and beautiful windows, the lower 
ones set within pointed arches, and separated by finely 
formed groups of clustered shafts, with the heads graced 



86 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

with rich tracery and bearing a quatrefoil, the upper row 
loftier and more acutely formed with even richer traceries, 
with a quatrefoil and trefoil alternating in their heads, how 
immensely enhanced the beauty of the building would be 
were the filling-in of the colonnade removed, and play given 
to the shadows which would then lurk, and give relief, as 
no doubt the architect intended. 

The fine and impressive belfry, placed in the centre of 
the steeply-inclined roof, with its four crocketed pinnacles 
at the four corners, possesses an octagonal spire of most 
elegant proportions. In this a new peal or carillon has 
recently been placed. The old one having become " tinny " 
in tone, and when last we slept close beneath it, alas ! 
(through its mechanism being out of repair) it insisted upon 
chiming every seven and a half minutes. For some time 
afterwards we avoided hotels that lay near belfries. 

The tower which served the town as a belfry was one of 
the first portions of the building to be erected. The first 
stone of this part of the famous and beautiful building was 
laid by Baldwin IX., Count of Flanders and Emperor of 
Constantinople, in the presence of his wife, Mary of Cham- 
pagne, Herlibalde, chief bailiff of Ypres, and a vast con- 
course of citizens and their wives on March i, 1201. 
Ypres, in common with many other Belgian and French 
towns, profited by the Crusading fever to purchase freedom 
and privileges from its rulers, who found money melt away 
in the costly pursuit of fighting the forces of Saladin, and 
struggling to possess the Holy Land. Often, however, 
these privileges which enterprising burghers purchased from 
impecunious rulers, for their own benefit and that of their 
town, were of transient value. The *' commercial morality " 
of kings and princes in the Middle Ages does not appear 
always to have been very high. It was so easy to rescind 
the privileges which had been granted when money was 
needed, so that they might be sold again. 

The belfry and the main or centre portion of the Hotel 
de Ville and Cloth Hall was more than a century in course 
of building, and the old Hall, or right wing, was not com- 
pleted until 1230. The Cloth Hall, or more eastern wing, 
although not begun until 1285, was finished in the same 
year as the belfry. The Conciergerie is at the back of the 
Hotel de Ville facing the Church of St. Martin. It can be 




(iRANDE PLACE, CLOTH HALL a N i - OLD HOUSES, YPRES 



ALONG OLD ROADS 87 

reached through a passage under the eastern portion or 
seventeenth-century additions to the Cloth Hall. Formerly 
— until, in fact, the latter were erected — the whole block 
was isolated and much more imposing. The Hotel de 
Ville contains the former Salle Echevinale, which, situate 
in the centre of what is at Ypres known as the Nieuwerk 
(the Renaissance structure erected in 1620, and following 
years, probably from designs by Jan Sporeman) contains 
some excellent and interesting frescoes by Gottfried Guffens 
and Jan P. Swerts, comprising scenes from the chief events 
of the town's history. It should be noted that until the 
afternoon, on account of the light, these cannot be well seen, 
and we found them worth choosing the best time. The 
upper floor of the Cloth Hall has three enormous galleries 
with wooden roofs. In this portion of the building, the 
eastern half of the south wing, are contained some fine fres- 
coes by the well-known artist, William Ferdinand Pauwels, 
also depicting incidents in the history of the city. The por- 
tion covered by the paintings comprises about two centuries, 
and some of the most stirring events took place between the 
dates 1 176, when the Hospital of the Virgin was founded, 
and 1383, when the city was besieged and a great portion 
of it burned. One of the most vigorous and dramatic of the 
series of pictures is that depicting the horrors of the great 
Plague, which swept through the Low Countries in 1347 and 
decimated the population of many of the great towns, 
Ypres among the number. 

The fagade of the Hotel de Ville and Cloth Hall was 
originally adorned with fine statues of the Counts and 
Countesses of Flanders and famous citizens of Ypres, which, 
placed there in 1513, were destroyed by the French Re- 
publican forces in December, 1792. The figures were 
replaced between the years 1854 ^^^ ^^75- ^^ the same 
year as that in which the statues were originally placed in 
the niches a double flight of steps were added in the fourth 
opening leading to the first floor by which the Hotel de 
Ville was reached. This was destroyed about the year 
i860. The statue, which stands on a bracket and beneath 
a lofty tabernacle, is that of ** Our Lady of the Palisades," 
who was adopted as patroness of the town during the 
memorable siege of 1383, when Henry Spenser, Bishop of 
Norwich, grandson of the ill-starred favourite of Edward II., 



88 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

assisted by 20,000 Gantois (Ghent was the only place which 
had held out against Charles VI., King of France, and 
Count Louis of Flanders, known as " Van Maele "), sat down 
before Ypres to besiege it. The garrison of Count Louis 
were in a parlous state : they were threatened by the 
English and Ghent burghers without, and the Ypres 
citizens, whom they had subdued, but not conquered, within. 
The fierceness of the assault is quaintly illustrated by the 
statement which occurs in a contemporary account that 
** in one day were picked up in the streets of Ypres so many 
arrows as to fill over-full two tuns." 

Much of the severest fighting took place on the outskirts 
of the town, in the palisades — which gave their name to the 
patron saint we have referred to. 

The King of France himself, however, came hurrying to 
the relief of his beleaguered forces under Count Louis, and 
the militant English Bishop of Norwich promptly took to 
flight. 

In the rear of the Hotel de Ville and Cloth Hall, and 
rather overshadowed by them, stands the beautiful Cathedral 
Church of St. Martin, with its unfinished western tower. 
St. Martin's was for two and a half centuries, from 1559- 
1801, the cathedral of Ypres. The church was founded in 
1073* by Robert le Frison, but the most ancient part of the 
present church, the chancel, only dates from 1221, when it 
was rebuilt by Hugues, Provost of St. Martin. The early 
Gothic nave and aisles were rebuilt in 1254, after having 
been destroyed by fire, on the initiative of the successor of 
Hugues. This portion was finished twelve years later, and 
was consecrated with great pomp and ceremony in 1270. 
The present tower, the height of which is 188 feet, was 
never finished (this is also the case with that of Malines), 
took the place of a former one, the first brick being laid 
in 1434, two centuries after its destruction, by Anastasie 
D'Oulne, Viscountess of Ypres. The architect was the 
famous Martin Utenhove of Malines. 

The east end of this imposing church, the nave of which 
is lofty and elegant, was beautifully restored m the middle 
of the last century. It is of brick, with light buttresses 
close to the wall, and the clerestory is formed by lancets 
between each pair of buttresses. The extremely pretty 
*■ Some authorities give a date a decade later. 



ALONG OLD ROADS 89 

carved moulding beneath the dripstone of the window, con- 
sisting of leaves and flowers, should be specially noticed. It 
is an unusually elegant feature. The tracery of no two 
windows is alike. Those in the choir are triplets, and have 
detached shafts in front, forming a rear vault between them 
and the proper mullions of the windows. The effect is 
striking and elegant, and one should note how greatly this 
is brought about by the existence of an external wall passage 
at the sills of the lancets, for which the buttresses are 
pierced. 

It is impossible to describe in detail this beautiful build- 
ing, whose lofty and elegant nave at once impresses the 
beholder with its beauty of proportion, but there are a few 
other points which will strike even those whose knowledge 
of the technicalities of architecture, which so often reveals 
the deeper and underlying beauty of a building, may be 
limited. In the south wall of the transept, for instance, is 
an exquisite rose window, which by many authorities is 
considered one of the finest and most beautiful in Belgium. 
It is fourteenth-century work, and the glass is unusually 
beautiful in colouring and design. The very elegant porch 
beneath it is of a like date, and contains some statues of the 
Virgin and saints. In the gable above the rose window is 
a blind arcade with good tracery, whilst the gable itself is 
flanked by turrets in the Decorated Style, but apparently of 
much later date. 

The general plan of the church is cruciform, with an 
aisleless polygonal chancel. The south end of the transept 
has double aisles ; the north end only a single one, the 
aisle on its western side being lacking. The aisles of the 
transept on the east side of the church are divided from 
the chapels by very elegant cylindrical shafts, one of which, 
it will be noticed, is considerably out of the perpendicular. 

The choir is a beautiful one, but possesses neither am- 
bulatory nor chapels. In it are some fine stalls of late 
Renaissance work, carved by Urban Taillebert during the 
last year or two of the sixteenth century. The painting of 
the Assumption, placed over the high altar, which is in 
baroque style, is ascribed (possible wrongly) to Luca Gior- 
dano. The small flat stone which is in front of the altar of 
St. Martin has some historical interest in that it marks the 
burial-place of Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, the 



90 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

founder of the Jansenist sect, believers in the doctrine of 
free grace which aroused so fierce a controversy in the 
Roman Church on the publication of the bishop's " Augus- 
tinus " two years after his death. The doctrine of the sect 
is still accepted by many in Utrecht and Haarlem at the 
present day. 

From the tower of the church, which is well worth 
ascending, although it entails the climbing of almost as 
many steps as there are days in the year, a fine panoramic 
view of Ypres and its many churches is obtained. On a 
fine day one can see for a radius of some forty miles, and an 
excellent idea of the general character of West Flanders 
scenery is gained. 

The general effect of the interior of the Cathedral is very 
good, owing chiefly to the fine proportions and length and 
breadth of the nave ; to the absence of seventeenth-century 
choir screens (which have been installed in too many Belgian 
churches) and, above all, to the rare beauty of the chancel, 
than which we know of none finer in Belgium as regards 
its general impression. On the day upon which we last 
entered it it was beautifully decorated for a festival. From 
the roof depended long banners in delicate colours, pale 
bright blue (the Virgin's colour), grey, mauve, rose and pale 
orange ; with Maltese crosses, the triple cross, and other 
ecclesiastical devices embroidered upon them. The altars 
were masses of exquisite flowers, and some of them draped 
with delicately tinted fabrics to match the depending 
banners which waved over the heads of a vast congregation, 
many of the women and children of which were gay and 
picturesque in the peasant costumes. 

During Mass we had an evidence of the immense strides 
that photography, under unfavourable conditions of lighting, 
has made with the assistance of ultra -rapid plates and 
lenses working at a large aperture. Also how even ecclesi- 
asticism upon the Continent has had to give way before the 
popular demand for pictorial records of important events. 
Just inside the main door a temporary scaffold had been 
erected, and from it several photographers were busily 
engaged in photographing the scene — even during the Eleva- 
tion of the Host ! We have a shrewd suspicion that the 
verger and the ** Suisse," the latter resplendent in a gorgeous 
red, orange, and blue uniform, " had their doubts " regarding 



ALONG OLD ROADS 91 

the propriety of the proceeding, but no one else seemed to 
pay any attention to the men whose cameras clicked so 
industriously during the service. 

The old parish chapel, or Chapel of the Sacrament, is of 
considerable size and especially interesting. It is divided 
from the aisle by a fine seventeenth-century brass grille, 
mounted in coloured marbles, and having its piers richly 
carved and decorated with alabaster statuettes of saints. 
The roof of the chapel is of wood, and some of the original 
painting remains with faded carving and gilding ; the 
general effect is quaint and picturesque ; but the later 
element of charm is rather the effect of time than a part of 
the original design of the architect. 

In this part of the Cathedral there are many quaint 
pictures meriting more than a cursory examination. One 
in the chapel we have just referred to is reputed to be the 
work of Franz P. Hals. It bears the inscription ** Ipra ab 
Anglis et Rebellibus obsessa. Anno 1383," and relates to the 
siege of the town by the Bishop of Norwich and his English 
companions, and the Gantois troops of that date, to which 
reference has alread}^ been made. The picture shows a 
view of the town, part of which is in flames, and the 
country round about. The English army is accommodated 
with tents; and among them is seated a prince of royal 
blood with or, three lions passant^ gardant gules emblazoned 
upon his surcoat, and on the banner above him. A knight 
wearing the same arms, in repulsing a sally is depicted 
thrusting a lance into a man, who is issuing from the burn- 
ing city. Near by is seen a group of knights with an 
English prince at their head. Men are seen firing into the 
city, and assaults being made. The picture is divided into 
two parts separated by an open space. In the other half a 
long procession of monks and nuns is seen being received 
by the town. They are bearing with them the statue of 
" Our Lady of the Palisade," through whose instrumentality 
plus the advance of the French King and his forces the 
plundering, filibustering Bishop of Norwich was made to 
retire from his siege of Ypres. 

In connection with this interesting chapel there is a 
quaint old custom observed at funerals of placing upon the 
altar a loaf, a cruet, and a piece of money. How the 
custom arose we have been unable to discover, though it 



92 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



1 



is obviously connected with the Breton one of providing 
food for the dead. It dates from at least three and a half 
centuries ago. 

There are many other interesting buildings in Ypres. 
Some stand in the principal streets — two are situated close 
to the Hotel de Ville in the Grande Place ; others are only 
to be discovered by the wanderer who, in his enthusiasm 
(and what more charming pursuit is there when in a quaint 
old town than the discovery of architectural and antiquarian 
treasures unnoted in the average guide-books ?), explores 
the side streets and winding narrow alleys, particularly in 
the northern portion of the town. The three Guild Houses 
in the Marche au Betail, the numbers of which are 15, 19, 
and 21 ; the houses in the Nouveau Marche au Bois, and 
especially the Maison Biebuyck in the Rue de Dixmude — 
all are worth attentive study as most excellent examples of 
fifteenth and sixteenth century domestic architecture. 

The Maison Biebuyck is one of the finest and most 
beautiful Gothic houses in all Belgium — a delight to the 
artistic eye and to the antiquarian mind. The Hospice 
Belle, but a couple of hundred yards from the Grande 
Place down the handsome and wide Rue de Lille, an asylum 
for old women, founded in or about the year 1279 by 
Christine de Guines, and rebuilt in 1616, is also worth a 
visit. In it there is a notable votive picture of the Madonna 
and Child and the donors on a gilt ground, and a poly- 
chrome votive relief, both dating from the year 1420, and of 
great antiquarian and historical interest. In the March^-Bas, 
quite close to the Grande Place, in the Rue du Verger, 
stands the Boucherie, or Meat Market, one of the oldest 
houses left. It is a double - fronted building of Gothic 
design, the stone lower stories of which are thirteenth-cen- 
tury work. The first floor is now the Municipal Museum, 
containing some good collections. There is a most interest- 
ing sixteenth-century plan of the city ; and in the second 
room are some old views of the city, which are of great 
interest. We also noticed amongst the collection of pictures 
a sketch of the Miracles of St. Benedict, attributed to 
Rubens. 

Perhaps the most interesting house to the ordinary 
tourist or traveller who comes to Ypres, and who possesses 
not sufficient knowledge of architecture or antiquities to 



ALONG OLD ROADS 93 

fully appreciate the old houses we have been noting, will be 
the really charming Hotel Merghelynck at the corner of the 
Rue de Lille, and the Marche aux Vieux Habits (Old 
Clothes Market), built during the last quarter of the 
eighteenth century. Since 1892 this house has been fitted 
up and devoted to the purposes of an eighteenth-century 
museum, which is wonderfully complete and interesting. As 
one enters the hall, one is surrounded with a complete col- 
lection of furniture and fittings of the period. It was an 
eighteenth-century clock, an elegant " grandfather," which 
chimed the hour of three, and an eighteenth-century scraper 
which invited us to clean (as it was a fine July afternoon) 
imaginary dirt from our boot-soles as we stepped into the 
lobby. In the entresol are many objects of interest and 
almost priceless value. In the salle a manger the illusion of 
eighteenth-century life is skilfully carried out. The table is 
laid for dinner, the appointments — the glass, silver, cutlery, 
china — are all in character, and on the buffet stand wine- 
glasses of the period, and bottles of rare wines, spirits, and 
liqueurs, for the use of the ghostly guests one can almost 
fancy one sees sitting in the high-backed chairs. Not a 
piece of furniture is out of character, and not an engraving 
upon the walls but is of the period. 

The same is the case with the salon, on the tables of 
which are choice eighteenth-century books of fashions, 
poetry, copperplates, and some Elzevirs. On the spinet, or 
harpsichord, were opened pages of music of the same period, 
looking as though the players had but just turned the leaves 
ere getting up from the instruments. The exquisite engrav- 
ings, china, bric-a-brac, and clocks in this room are such as 
make a collector envious ; while an eighteenth-century 
occasional table and work-table appeal to the feminine 
heart which " loves " old and quaint furniture. 

The writing-cabinet, a small room fitted with delightful 
furniture and bric-a-brac, and the other reception rooms of 
the house, are not less interesting. And when one comes 
at length to the bedrooms, it is to find realism even further 
advanced. In one room — that of a lady of the house — 
beside the bed stood a pair of high-heeled shoes just as the 
wearer might have slipped them off her feet ere getting into 
bed, a pair of silk stockings hanging on the foot of the bed- 
stead, with petticoats and other articles of attire. In a 



94 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

clothes-press are delightful gowns, such as an artist would 
feel inclined to appropriate to add to his stock of "property" 
costumes. The quaint toilet-table, with its polished mirrors, 
is laid out with toilet articles as though the occupant of the 
room had but just finished rouging and powdering. The 
fard-pots, brushes, combs, files, and scissors were all there 
ready for the morning as it seemed, when beauty aroused 
would consult her glass ere setting out, to enhance her 
charms or repair the ravages of time. 

Near by was a severer room, thdt of the master of the 
house, whose riding-boots stood by the bedside, whose 
sword is hung over the back of a near-by chair by its belt, 
whose pistols are handy, and plum-coloured suit (perhaps 
this is changed now and then for another taken from the 
well-stocked wardrobe) was neatly folded and placed on 
another chair, or settle. The only thing needed to complete 
the illusion — the peruke was on its "block" and shaving 
implements on the dressing-table — was the head of the 
sleeper upon the pillow. 

So from the kitchen — quaint with a delightful collection of 
brightly-gleaming pots and pans — to garret is the eighteenth 
century reproduced. All that is lacking is the human note 
of the people of that past age moving amid the charming 
setting which the skill and artistic sense of the originator 
of this wonderful museum has conjured up. And as one 
comes away from examining the interesting collection of 
prints, documents, tapestries, and garments which are dis- 
played in several of the upper rooms, and slips a ** pot de 
vin" into the hand of the grey-headed custodian, who proved 
a delightful guide over the house, one realizes the limita- 
tions of human intelligence and appreciation on over-hear- 
ing a young fellow-countrywoman say to her mother, as 
the two come out of the salon and prepare to ascend the 
staircase to the second floor: "It's all just lovely, mamma. 
Even Harrods' people couldn't do it better." 

We don't think that they could. We wonder what our 
grey-headed custodian would say if the remark were trans- 
lated and explained. We fancy he would lift up his hands 
in horror, and repeat again what he had already told us 
several times : " Monsieur, this collection was the work of 
a lifetime. There is none other so complete, so artistic, in 
Flanders." 



ALONG OLD ROADS 95 

For Harrods and their enterprise is, of course, unknown 
to this charming-mannered custodian of ancient Ypres. 

There are yet many other things of interest in quaint, old- 
world Ypres — for example, the Hospice St. Jean, near the 
Porte de Lille, not forgetting the curious outdoor Calvary 
of the Church of St. Pierre, which one passes on the way to 
the Hospice, and the quaint figures in their wire netting 
protection within the church itself. 

But the call of the road and the enticing voices of the 
spirits of other ancient towns which lie along our way to 
Namur lure one on, and Ypres is left reluctantly by the 
Porte de Menin. 

The most direct route to Courtrai is by way of Menin, on 
the Lys. But there is not much of note to detain one in 
this once strongly fortified place, which is but a few miles 
distant from the French frontier formed by the bank of the 
Lys. 

The approach to Courtrai is through a pleasant and 
fertile stretch of country, more undulating than is much of 
the road we have taken inland from Nieuport. As one 
crosses the Lys and ascends the main street which leads to 
the Grande Place, one catches a glimpse down the river of 
the picturesque twin towers known as " Broeltorens," with 
the ancient bridge between them spanning the placid and 
almost currentless river. 

It was market-day on the somewhat dull afternoon on 
which we reached Courtrai, and the wide Place was 
rendered less grey than it otherwise would have been by the 
presence of canopied booths, the fruit and flowers upon 
which gave a touch of bright colour here and there to the 
scene. 

From the fourteenth-century Tours des Petits Halles the 
chimes rang out, more musical than some carillons we had 
heard on our journey, and we decided that the Hotel du 
Damiers on the Grande Place hard by might be risked. 
We had by now become shy of too near proximity with 
carillons until we had heard them chime. 

There is an air of life and commercial activity about 
Courtrai even on a dull afternoon with a " drizzle " of rain 
threatening, a pleasant change from the sluggish, though 
interesting, life of Nieuport, Dixmude, and Ypres. We 
remembered that Courtrai was one of the towns of West 



96 THE BELGIANS AT HOME ^^ 

Flanders, which, famous and prosperous in the Middle 
Ages, had of recent times somewhat recovered itself from 
the decline which afflicted it and Ypres and other towns 
alike. Its 40,000 inhabitants must do something. As a 
matter of fact they deal in flax and manufacture linen. 
The flax of Courtrai, indeed, is famous the world over. 
Its table linen almost outrivals that of Belfast (which, by 
the way, purchases vast quantities of Courtrai flax), and its 
lace-makers are almost equally well known. 

There is an air of solid prosperity about the houses of the 
town, situated in the streets lying parallel with the river, 
and between it and the sombre, though beautiful. Church 
of St. Martin, behind their discreetly curtained and shut- 
tered windows, large fortunes are being made by means of 
flax, industry, and frugality of living. 

" There are," said an Irish flax merchant with whom we 
chatted over our cafe au lait and rolls at breakfast on the 
morning after our arrival, " more than a score of merchants 
known to me who have amassed fortunes of a hundred 
thousand pounds and upwards. And yet you might 
suppose that they were not worth twenty. They live 
frugally, their wives and daughters work in the house — 
some of them keep a single servant — and even do the 
cooking." 

" What a strange life 1" we exclaimed, with recollections 
of people with four or five hundred a year in England who j 
apparently can own expensive motors and entertain company. \ 

" Not at all," replied our Belfast merchant. " That is ^ 
the way to get rich and keep rich. A fortnight at Heyst, ; 
Knocke, Blankenberghe — seldom Ostend — an occasional 
tennis party, piano-playing, and church-going, make up 
with industry the amusements and life interests of the 
wives and daughters of Courtrai merchants. They are 
charming hostesses, as I know from experience, and make 
excellent wives, as several of my countrymen have found." . 

In the work of its womankind Belgium indeed has an 
asset of priceless value. 

Beneath the very walls of picturesquely-situate Courtrai, 
just a little more than 600 years before — to be exact, on 
July II, 1302 — was fought the famous Battle of Spurs, 
which, if one may believe a famous schoolmaster, English 
boys think was so named because^ the French knights and 




o 



o 
o 






O 

o 

a; 

O 

o 



ALONG OLD ROADS 97 

mounted troops engaged therein took flight. The real 
origin of the name, of course, arose from the immense 
number (some accounts mention 800) of golden spurs 
picked up upon the field after the battle, a golden spur 
being one of the distinguishing marks of French knight- 
hood. The battle was fought between the Flemish forces 
under the leadership of William, Duke of Juliers, and John, 
Count of Namur, and the French under the Comte D'Ar- 
tois. The former consisted chiefly of the weavers of 
Bruges and Ypres, under the local leadership of the heads 
of the Bruges Guilds, Jan Breidel, and Pieter de Conine. 
Some idea of the fierceness of the fighting may be gathered 
from the fact that no less than 1,200 knights and many 
thousand common soldiers were killed. The French were 
put to flight, and the golden spurs found upon the field and 
taken from the slain were hung as trophies in a monastery 
church since destroyed by fire.* 

The two chief churches, St. Martin's and Notre Dame, 
the former near the picturesque beguinage^ are both of 
considerable interest. St. Martin's is a remarkable ex- 
ample of the blending of German with French methods of 
ecclesiastical architecture, and the result is impressive. 
The church is spacious and dignified, and the choir is a 
delightfully elegant one. The western end of the church, 
except for the beautiful portal, strikes one as being a little 
lacking in grace, and the details are not well and purely 
carried out, but this does not mar the building to any great 
extent. The earlier portions were commenced (possibly on 
the site of a much earlier church) during the closing decade 
of the fourteenth century. The transept was completed 
about 1410-1415, and the western portal in the last decade 
of the sixteenth century. The nave is divided from the 
aisles by tall, round columns, having narrow capitals and 
octagonal abaci. The inner faces of the columns are 
adorned with life-size statues. There is no clerestory, and 
in this feature the building resembles some well-known 
North-West Germany churches. The vaulting of the nave, 
aisles, and transepts is very simple and effective, and at the 
same height in each case. In the choir the French style, 
more graceful and of earlier date, prevails, and one finds a 

■**■ Some authorities state that at a later date, when the French con* 
quered Flanders, the spurs were removed by the victorious knights. 
7 



98 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

low triforium arcade and an elegant clerestory. The apse 
has three sides, and round them the arcade and clerestory- 
are continued, but there is no ambulatory. There are two 
tiers of windows, a feature which recalls memories of 
Ratisbon Cathedral. The tracery in these windows, the 
lower ones of four lights, the upper rank of three, is very 
light and effective. 

A notable feature of the choir are the graceful columns 
which support the five arches on either side of it, and those 
which, in its north aisle, open into the large apsidal chapel. 
The carving of the capitals of these columns, which are of 
cylindrical shape and of the same height as those of the 
nave, though considerably more elegant and slender in 
proportion, should be noted. It is by many authorities 
thought to be the best and most charming in character of 
any in Belgium. Many casual observers would place its 
date as in the twelfth century, although it is probably 
fourteenth ; the foliage and interspersed crockets of the 
design giving an impression of the earlier century work. 

Several bays of the choir are furnished with screens of 
Flemish Flamboyant work of a good type, harmonizing 
admirably with the beautiful and elegant late Gothic stone 
tabernacle, which stands in the centre of the third arch on 
the north side. There is a fine sixteenth-century carved 
wood pulpit with a handsome sounding board which, with 
the tabernacle of like date, was happily rescued from the 
destructive fire that greatly damaged the church in 1862. 
The stained glass of the choir and the large side chapel, 
though tasteful and good in colouring, is modern. The triple 
picture in the north transept, by B. de Ryckere, a sixteenth- 
century painter and a native of Courtrai, representing the 
Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Creation, and Baptism of 
Our Lord, is interesting. 

The Church of Notre Dame, which unhappily was rather 
injudiciously modernized in the eighteenth century, was 
founded by Count Baldwin IX. of Flanders, and was com- 
pleted about 1211. It can be easily seen from portions 
which have been untouched, that prior to the restoration 
and modernizing to which we have referred the building 
must have been a remarkably fine example of thirteenth- 
century architecture. Although the church, which is cruci- 
form in shape, is short, and has only two bays to the nave. 



ALONG OLD ROADS 99 

the building out of chapels on the south and north sides 
has served to give it an appearance of much greater size. 
On the west gable of the first-named chapel is a bell turret 
v^hich it will be observed groups very effectively with the 
steeples flanking the western fa9ade. Among the most notice- 
able and interesting of the medieval features of the interior 
are the round columns of the apsidal choir, which have four 
small shafts grouped round them, with foliated capitals, the 
windows of the transept with their inner planes of tracery 
and four lights, the two lateral chapels, and some of the 
smaller details. 

The church is rich in the possession of a masterpiece 
of Van Dyck — one of the best of his sacred paintings — *' The 
Elevation of the Cross." By a strange coincidence this 
work of art, which had some little while before been cut 
out of its frame and stolen by two men named Carlier and 
Vesfaille, was about to be received back from the repairer's 
hand in Antwerp the week after the date of our last visit. 
The occasion was to be a most impressive one, consisting 
of a religious and civic procession, and a day of general 
rejoicing. The two thieves had got clear away with their 
booty, so the most genial librarian of the Hotel de Ville 
told us, but were captured when near Bruges b}^ the intelli- 
gence of a peasant, who saw them wheeling a roll of sacking 
on a barrow, which they were obviously anxious should not 
attract undue attention. The gendarmerie was notified, and 
the two men captured. In the roll was found the missing 
picture for which the hue and cry had been raised. The 
painting is now hung in the south transept. 

To the right and left of the choir recess, in the ambula- 
tory, are altars enriched with good marble reliefs dating 
from the eighteenth century. They are by Nicolas Lecreux, 
of Tournai, and represent Mary Magdalene with angels, and 
St. Rochus ministering to the plague-stricken. 

In the panels of the trefoiled blank arches are some 
remarkable bas-reliefs, the subjects of which are the Seven 
Mortal Sins. These consist of a series of figures, many of 
them of a grotesque character, and some of so indelicate a 
nature that one is tempted to wonder how they came to 
be placed in such a building. 

An extremely interesting feature of this chapel is a series 
of fourteenth-century wall-paintings, representing the Counts 



loo THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

and Countesses of Flanders down to that period, which 
M. Van der Plaetsen (who restored the frescoes about a 
quarter of a century ago), continued to the time of the 
Emperor Francis II. He also adorned the western wall of 
the chapel with a picture of the Last Judgment. 

In the Gothic Town Hall, erected in the early part of the 
sixteenth century, situate on the north-west side of the 
Grande Place, Courtrai has a building of great architectural 
charm. It was greatly injured and much neglected during 
the eighteenth century, but has been well and carefully 
restored since the middle of the last century. The front has 
niches, containing statues of historical and other characters. 
On the ground-floor is the interesting Salle Echevinale, 
containing a very handsome Renaissance chimneypiece, 
adorned with coats-of-arms of the standard-bearers of knights 
of the town, a figure of the Virgin, and statues of the Arch- 
duke Albert of Austria and his wife, Clara Isabella Eugenia, 
daughter of Philip II. of Spain, and the coats-of-arms of the 
allied cities of Bruges and Ghent. On the walls above the 
oak-panelled dado are some well -painted and interesting 
frescoes by Gottfried Guffens, of Hasselt, and Jan P. Swerts, 
of Antwerp, representing scenes from the history of 
Flanders. These include : " The Departure of Count 
Baldwin IV. for the Fourth Crusade in 1202," a spirited 
painting of good colouring ; and '* The Flemish Leaders 
holding a Council of War " in the Court Room on the day 
before the Battle of Spurs a century later. 

In the Council Chamber, which is on the first floor, is one 
of the most remarkable and perfect Flamboyant Flemish 
chimneypieces in Belgium. It is very richly carved, and 
dates from 1527. There are no less than three rows of 
beautifully and elaborately carved statuettes, representing 
the virtues and vices, and punishments of the latter. The 
little figures, of which there are generally several in the 
group, are astonishingly well executed ; the upper row con- | 
tains representations of liberality, chastity, humility, faith, 
patience, temperance, etc., among the virtues. In the second 
row or tier we have their counterparts — avarice, voluptuous- 
ness, pride, idolatry, anger, gluttony, etc. The reliefs in 
the third row are popularly supposed to represent the punish- 
ments which follow indulgence in the vices, and are certainly 
very vivid representations, which should serve as strong 



J 




<: 



o 



ALONG OLD ROADS loi 

deterrents. The three statues placed upon corbels represent 
Charles V. with the Infanta Isabella of Spain on the right, 
and a figure of Justice on the left. The old plans of the 
town and suburbs, dating from 1641 and done in oils, which 
are on the walls of the chamber, are curious and interesting. 

Along the Rue Guido Gezelle, or by way of the town 
bridge, and then along the left-hand bank of the river, one 
reaches the ancient bridge which connects the two fine 
towers, known as " Les Tours du Broel." They are one of 
the most interesting architectural survivals in Courtrai. At 
•the time of a recent visit the bridge was under repair, and 
upon inquiry we ascertained that the "Vandals" of Courtrai 
had for some time been agitating for its removal, and the 
substitution of a *'nice new iron bridge." Happily the 
Society for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments came to 
the rescue, and chiefly by its efforts the danger of destruc- 
tion of this old-world landmark, we were told, has at least 
for the time been averted. In the right-hand tower is 
housed the MusSe d'Antiquites, containing, amongst other 
things, some fine and interesting specimens of Flanders lace, 
engravings, etc. 

A walk along the left bank of the river takes one into the 
land of the flax industry, and one obtains a most picturesque 
backward view, ere turning the corner, of the massive old 
Tours du Broel and a silhouette of the distant town between 
them. 

In the flax fields and linen bleaching-grounds one sees 
many a picture, such as Millet would have chosen to paint. 
Groups of men and women pursuing the industry which 
made Courtrai famous when the world was young and has, 
down from the Middle Ages to modern times, enabled her to 
hold her own in the world's linen markets, and to escape 
the fate of becoming (as have so many other ancient places 
in Flanders) a " dead " town. 



CHAPTER V 

TOURNAI AND THROUGH LE BORINAGE TO NAMUR 

WAYFARERS who come to Courtrai are well advised 
to make the sHght detour from the direct route on 
their way to Tournai, which will enable them to 
visit Oudenarde. All round Courtrai are scattered interest- 
ing and delectable towns and quaint villages, in which the 
artist and antiquarian may well linger; but Oudenarde is 
especially picturesque and historically interesting. 

The best way (and it is a delightful road) to reach it, 
tramping or cycling, is, as we did, to take the road out of 
Courtrai to Avelghem, and thence go north-eastward along 
the banks of the winding Scheldt, in a bend of which the 
ancient town is placed. Nowadays Oudenarde, the birth- 
place of the famous Margaret of Parma, lives largely on its 
past glories ; there are but some seven thousand souls where 
anciently there were tens of thousands. In those far-off 
days its chief industry was tapestry-making. 

Although there are a couple of churches and several 
ancient buildings in Oudenarde well worth seeing, it is the 
beautiful Late Gothic Hotel de Ville that forms the town's 
greatest architectural attraction. In this delightful building 
one easily traces the influence of its larger and more famous 
prototype at Brussels, which dates from about a century 
earlier. The architects of the Oudenarde Hotel de Ville 
were William de Ronde and Hendrik van Peede, a native of 
the town, who became of some considerable note. The 
building was a few years ago thoroughly and sympathetically 
restored, without and within, and is now in an almost 
perfect state of preservation. The ground-floor forms a 
pointed hall, supported by columns, and there is an elegant 
arcade in the front of the buildings consisting of seven 

102 



W 



TOURNAI 103 

arches. There are two upper stories beneath a high-pitched 
roof, broken up by picturesque mansard windows. The 
tower in the centre of the building is of a charming and rich 
design, and the chimes which hang in it are of an unusually 
pleasant and musical tone, with "the mellowness of old 
bells oft rung." The crown-shaped roof is surmounted by 
a figure known as "John the Warrior," who holds the 
banner of Flanders in his hand. 

The Salle des Pas Perdus, on the first floor, is enriched 
by a very fine Late Gothic or Renaissance chimneypiece, 
distinguished by some excellent and elaborate undercut 
stone and metal work of Peter van Schelden, in the first half 
of the sixteenth century. The Council Chamber has a door 
and portal of most extraordinary richness of carving in the 
Renaissance style, which even the casual and unlearned 
sightseer can scarcely fail to admire, and also a fine Late 
Gothic chimneypiece from the same hands. The large room 
on the second floor contains a most interesting collection of 
books, coins, and antiquities, chiefly relating to the town. 
Not the least interesting among the many items is a fine 
series of manuscripts and autograph letters of Margaret of 
Parma, born in 1522, a natural daughter of the Emperor, 
Charles V., and Johanna van der Gheenst, who ultimately 
became the Regent of the Netherlands under Philip IL ; 
Charles V. ; Isabella Clara Eugenia ; William of Nassau ; 
Lamoral, Count Egmont ; and last, though by no means 
least, of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. The last 
named convey orders and instructions for the victualling of 
the army then under the command of himself and Prince 
Eugene of Savoy. Only a few days later, on July 11, 1708, 
the two Generals gained a brilliant victory over the French, 
which bears the name of the town under the walls of which 
it was fought. 

We fancy that the importance and interest of the two 
churches of Oudenarde are generally undervalued by most, 
if not all, guide-books. The town itself, now one of those 
strange decayed places, once of historical, political, and 
ecclesiastical importance, of which there are so many in 
Flanders, clustering round magnificent churches or a won- 
derful Hotel de Ville, was in the days of Jacob and Philip 
van Artevelde almost equal to Ypres and Ghent in com- 
mercial importance and renown. Its two churches of Notre 



I04 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Dame de Pamele and Ste. Walburga are interesting to the 
student and important to the architect, as illustrating dis- 
tinct periods of ecclesiastical architecture. That of the first 
named being an excellent example of the Pointed Style soon 
after it had been evolved from the Romanesque, about the 
commencement of the fourteenth century. The second is a 
blending of two distinct periods, and offers a strange but 
artistically picturesque whole. 

The exterior of the Church of Notre Dame de Pamele is 
not, perhaps, to the unlearned or casual observer, beautiful ; 
it is even severe. But it has abiding interest for the student, 
and for two widely divergent reasons. The first that it is 
a perfect example of the Early Pointed Style ; the second 
because it was built from the design and plans of Arnould 
de Binche, the earliest known Belgian artist, who made 
architecture a study as a profession. 

The church was commenced on March 14, 1235, and was 
completed four years later by Alix, widow of the founder 
Arnould, Seigneur of Oudenarde. Happily the church 
escaped the pulling down and rebuilding which it is said 
was contemplated in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and 
with the exception of the extension of the northern transept 
and rebuilding of the south side of the nave in the Second 
Pointed Style, remains an unusually perfect example of an 
interesting architectural period. 

There are several especially interesting features in this 
delightful church. In plan it consists of a nave of four 
bays. The latter also has a clerestory, and aisles are carried 
round the five-sided apse. At the intersection of the cross 
a short octagonal tower rises which is crowned by a some- 
what squat spire of similar character. The western eleva- 
tion is impressive, and above the doorway, the arch of 
which rises from coupled shafts, is a lofty, two-light window 
surmounted by a circle. 

The clerestory of the apse with its single lancet window 
on each side should be noted ; and the church seen from 
the north-east presents the severe appearance such as is 
associated with Cistercian buildings in general. 

The interior of the church repays attentive study, and we 
think will surprise many who have been unimpressed by the 
comparatively plain exterior. The nave is divided from the 
aisles by short, rounded columns, with foliated capitals in 



TOURNAI 105 

the a crochet style, and octagonal abaci from which spring 
four heavily moulded arches. In the clerestory it will be 
noticed that the triple lancets are set nearly flush with the 
wall itself, and the ribs of the vault spring from slender 
shafts which are corbelled off just above the string-course, 
which separates the pier arches from the triforium. To 
separate the choir from its aisles the same type of columns 
for the arcades is found. There are capitals to the shafts of 
the triforium arcades of the transepts and choir, and this 
gives an appearance of far greater elegance and richness to 
them. The niches are filled with good modern statuary. 

It will be noticed that there is a strange minghng of 
stone and red brick in the groining of the church, the latter 
being used for that of the south aisle and its chapels. But 
the impression given is, nevertheless, harmonious and effec- 
tive ; the brick affording a quite pleasing contrast with the 
blue-grey general tone of the whole interior. 

Some years ago the latter was much disfigured in places 
by paint and whitewash, which during the carefully and 
well carried out restoration was entirely removed, to the 
great benefit of the effect realized by this beautiful church. 

"The stained glass is so good," was the exclamation 
of one artist when viewing it recently, " that it is not easy 
to realize that it is all modern." It is certainly of very 
high artistic and colour merit. Full-length figures of the 
saints form the subjects of the windows of the clerestory, 
the choir and apse. The treatment is archaic ; but it 
harmonizes well with the tout ensemble of the building, as do 
the delightful triple lancets which illumine the aisles and 
processional path round the apse. In the pair of long three- 
light windows of the north transept there is some beautiful 
glass. The compartments have a canopied figure at the 
bottom, and the supervening space is enriched with simple 
pattern work. 

The other church of Oudenarde, dedicated to Ste. Wal- 
burga, stands at the south-east corner of the Grande Place, 
and is partly in the Romanesque Style of the twelfth century, 
and partly in the style of the fourteenth and fifteenth century 
Gothic. It is an interesting building, which combines work 
of two very distinct architectural periods, but we have no 
space for a lengthy or detailed description. 

It is supposed that a vast scheme of reconstruction was 



io6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

contemplated, with the object of converting the church into 
a First Pointed building. The work was, however, aban- 
doned, and the choir and eastern walls of the transepts were 
left in their original state. 

As it stands with its grand and vast nave, and the un- 
finished transepts overshadowing the more modestly pro- 
portioned choir, it affords an almost unique and certainly 
wonderfully interesting object-lesson of the lines upon 
which the medieval architect proceeded when engaged 
upon the task of replacing a small and unimposing building 
with one of larger and more impressive dimensions. 

Upon entering the interior the fine and even grand pro- 
portions of the nave, which has recently been well and 
carefully restored, at once strike one. Amongst other 
things, the stonework has been cleared of whitewash and 
stucco and the tracery (which had been removed from the 
windows) replaced. The impression of the interior of the 
church is decidedly cold and austere, owing to the windows 
having been temporarily filled with sheets of ground-glass 
instead of the small diamond, leaded panes of " cathedral " 
tinted glass, which is nowadays generally used prior to the 
insertion of stained glass. 

A very pleasing feature of the interior is the continuation 
of the rather narrow aisles to the western limit of the 
tower, into which they emerge through arches of equal 
height with those of the nave, giving an appearance of 
much spaciousness and grandeur, and, as a whole, the 
church is intensely interesting. 

The Hotel de Ville and the two churches of Oudenarde do 
not by any means, however, exhaust the charm of the quaint 
little town which is picturesquely situated upon the banks of 
the Scheldt. There is much in it to please and interest the 
antiquarian, the artist, and the amateur photographer, who, 
indeed, form the greater number of the not very numerous 
visitors who find their way to the place made historically 
famous by one of Marlborough's notable victories. In the 
immediate neighbourhood, too, are many quaint villages 
and townlets well worth exploration, to mention which even 
by name there is no space in the present volume. 

There are two delightful routes from Oudenarde by which 
ancient Tournai may be reached. One is back along the 
left bank of the river to Avelghem — which, of course, has 



TOURNAI 107 

the disadvantage that one has travelled it before — and 
thence on to Pecq and Tournai. The other route does not 
touch the river at all, but runs through undulating and 
pretty country almost due south to quaint Renaix, and 
thence into less hilly country south-west, and then south 
again till Tournai is reached. 

The city of Tournai is built on both banks of the Scheldt, 
and stands nearly a hundred feet above sea-level. It is not 
only one of the most ancient towns in Belgium, dating, as 
Civitas Nerviorum, from the time of Julius Caesar, but was 
in the fifth century the capital of the Merovingian kings of 
the Salic Franks, who, during the third century, had estab- 
lished themselves in the hill-country of Belgium, and more 
particularly in the district between the river Meuse and the 
lower Rhine. The place was afterwards known as Turnacum 
(Doornik, Flem.), and in more modern times as Tournai. 
Nowadays it is a flourishing town — as ancient towns in 
Flanders and Hainault go — of 40,000 inhabitants. 

One of the most romantic of its many sieges is com- 
memorated in the fine monument in the Grande Place to 
Marie de Lalaing, Princesse d'Epinoy, who defended the 
town with astonishing courage and skill against the forces 
of Alexander, Duke of Parma, in 1581. The statue was 
cast from a model by Dutrieux, and is an impressive and 
excellent piece of work. In 1709 the forces under the 
command of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene 
took it, but in 1745 it once more fell into the hands of the 
French, and three years later, at the Treaty of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, was made a part of the Netherlands. 

The entry to Tournai from the direction of Courtrai is 
delightful. A fine avenue of large and well-grown trees 
leads one almost into the centre of the town itself; and even 
the quays, like several of those in Bruges and Ghent, are 
tree-planted, and their picturesqueness thereby considerably 
enhanced. Although many coal-barges from Le Borinage 
crowd the river on their way to other parts of Belgium, 
Tournai is sure to strike the traveller as being distinguished 
for a cleanliness and picturesqueness considerably greater 
than that of most Belgian commercial towns. The old walls 
which served the town so well long ago in times of siege 
are nowadays laid out as promenades. Unfortunately (as 
is the case at Ghent) modern improvements of recent years 



io8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

have resulted in the levelling down of some of the most 
picturesque portions of the fortifications, and the modern 
scheme of improving and widening the outer line of quays 
has robbed them of some of their former quaintness and 
beauty. 

In ancient times the town, which was the birthplace of 
the pretender Perkin Warbeck, had a great trade in copper 
and brass work, and towards the close of the seventeenth 
century, and onwards for a period of about a hundred and 
fifty years, it was noted for its tapestry looms, faience and 
porcelain manufactories, the latter started by the well- 
known F. J. Peterinck in 1751. The chief modern industries 
are weaving and embroidering. But there are not a large 
number of big factories, as the weavers work a great deal 
in their own homes, and are well worth seeing. On the 
outskirts of Tournai, in quite a number of cottages, small 
hand-looms are found, and weaving is carried on amidst 
decidedly arcadian and often picturesque surroundings. 

There is a distinctly prosperous air about this delightful 
old town, which, however modern in some of its ways, has 
yet hanging about it the charm of ancient things, and 
memories of romantic and stirring events. How far it is 
removed from intimate communion with outside things is 
best understood when one records that not an English paper 
was to be found in any of the newspaper shops or ^'libraries" 
at the time of our recent visit. No, not even the Paris 
edition of the New York Herald or Daily Mail. 

We were told, with an engaging smile, by the bright little 
gargon of a somewhat tumbledown hotel on the Grande 
Place at which we put up, that he, if no one else, could get 
us un journal Anglais. Having searched the town fruitlessly 
ourselves, we smiled, but in the end trusted him with a franc. 

The little gargon left us on his voyage of discovery. He 
disappeared through the glass swing-door of the restaurant, 
and sped across the sunlit Grande Place. We went on 
with our lunch, and waited for the journal Anglais to 
materialize. At last the door once more swung back, and 
our now breathless gargon, a still broader smile illuminating 
his chubby countenance, reappeared. He advanced towards 
us with the precious journal Anglais — was it the New York 
Herald or the Daily Mail ? we speculated — carefully con- 
cealed behind his back. 




ROOD-I.OFT, TOURNAI CATHEDRAL 



TOURNAI 109 

At last he stood beside us. 

With a bow and a sweeping gesture of his hand, and a 
triumphantly ejaculated " Voila, messieurs, le journal Ang- 
lais," a paper — or, rather, a magazine — was placed upon the 
table with the change, ten centimes. 

It was not the Daily Mail — it was not even the Paris 
edition of the New York Herald. This a glance assured us. 
We turned it over to see wh.3.t journal Anglais the resources 
of Tournai had at last produced. 

It was a copy of Weldon's Ladies' Journal for the previous 
month. 

The expression on our faces must have distressed Georges 
much. Indeed, he seemed quite crestfallen, and when we 
explained that it was news concerning le cricket and le sport 
that we desired, not that concerning la mode and la lingerie 
feminine, he heaved a sigh, and explained that Monsieur le 
Proprietare de la Librarie Universelle had assured him that 
what he had brought us with such splendid dramatic effect 
was un journal tres bien connu. Perhaps it is. 

Tournai has many attractions in the way of fine and 
interesting churches and historic and ancient buildings. 
Around its irregularly shaped, but, on the whole, triangular 
Grande Place, are grouped the fine Early Gothic Church of 
St. Quentin, which is so pleasing and famous as to be 
known as " La Petite Cathedrale," the Cloth Hall, and the 
Belfry, which is thought to date from the latter end of the 
twelfth century, whilst near by is the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame, a magnificent example of eleventh-century archi- 
tecture. 

Many, indeed, consider that this wonderful Church of 
Notre Dame is the finest and most architecturally satisfying 
in Belgium, not even excepting those of Malines, Bruges, 
and Antwerp. But the mere fact that Tournai is off the 
direct route from Ostend to Brussels has served to ensure 
it a neglect by those who wish to see what is best worth 
while, which is astonishing when one considers that the 
town is easily reached from Namur, for example, to which 
so many go to visit the beautiful valley of the Meuse. 

That Notre Dame of Tournai is at first sight one of the 
most beautiful and impressive of all the cathedrals of Belgium 
few will controvert. The charm and grandeur it possesses 
arises not alone from its fine central tower, but also from 



no THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the four rather singularly placed and elegant lateral steeples, 
the extraordinary extent of its Romanesque nave and 
apsidal transepts, and the grand proportions of its choir of 
the Middle Pointed periods. It is situate upon rising 
ground on the southern bank of the Scheldt Canal, which 
divides the city into two halves. On the right is the old 
Faubourg Saint Brice, where stood the original settlement 
or Gallic Durnacum, with the ancient palace of the Prankish 
kings, and where, in the middle of the seventeenth century, 
was found the tomb of Chilperic and its treasures. 

St. Eleutherius, who probably built a church on the site 
of an earlier one, was born at Tournai in the year 456, and 
embraced the faith of his parents. A persecution of the 
Christians in the city and district round about caused him 
to flee with many others to Blandinium (Blandain ?), where 
after a time a church was founded. On the death of the 
first Bishop of Blandinium, Eleutherius was sent on a 
mission to Rome by his fellow-Christians to obtain the then 
Pope's sanction to his succeeding Theodorus, who had died. 
As a result of this journey, apparently, he was consecrated 
to the See in or about 487. After a period of nine years, 
the conversion of Clovis and his followers permitted 
Eleutherius to return to his native town. He became 
Bishop of Tournai, and occupied the See for a period of 
upwards of forty years. Most of these were spent in a 
constant struggle against the pagans and heretics belonging 
to Arian sects, whose doctrines in the early years of Christi- 
anity in Gaul greatly influenced all the inhabitants save the 
Franks. Even Eleutherius did not escape persecution, and 
eventually suffered martyrdom. In the year 531 his chief 
persecutors and the opponents of the Christian faith lay in 
wait for him as he left one of the churches of his diocese, 
and so beat and ill-treated him that seven weeks later he 
died of his injuries. He was buried at Blandinium, but his 
remains were afterwards removed to Tournai, where they 
now rest in a beautiful, though badly placed. Early Gothic 
shrine on one side of the high altar in the choir. 

The church had many benefactors in the centuries which 
immediately followed the time of St. Eleutherius. King 
Chilperic endowed it generously, and until the middle of 
the sixteenth century the original deed of gift, with his 
signature, was preserved among the archives of the chapter. 



\ 



TOURNAl III 

This was, unfortunately, burnt with many other valuable 
and interesting medieval deeds and documents in the fire 
of 1566. With the invasion of the Normans in 882 and 
following years the people of Belgium fled in all directions, 
and the land was wasted with fire and sword. Tournai was 
far too rich and notable a place to escape. The fortifica- 
tions and chief buildings were destroyed and burned, and 
/lie inhabitants were compelled to abandon the city, to 
which for more than a century they did not return. 

There seems little doubt but that the cathedral was 
pillaged and, in part, at least, destroyed. There is good 
reason for believing that its rebuilding and restoration was 
not commenced until well into the eleventh century. At 
various times there have been fierce controversies regarding 
the age of the oldest portion of the church, but by most 
authorities it is not considered likely that the nave, the 
oldest portion of the present building, can have been even 
commenced prior to the middle of the eleventh century. 
One authority, who has devoted a large amount of research 
to enable the question to be decided,* quoted in his work a 
manuscript of the middle of the sixteenth century (discovered 
about sixty-five years ago), which, giving a list of the festivals 
of the cathedral, places the date of the dedication of the 
church as May g, 1066, in the following words : 

** Dedicatio ecclesise est festivus dies in populo intra 
muros. Triplex est cum octava et duplex primae classis. 
Videliscet novae, anno 1066." 

Very great damage was done to this beautiful church 
during the eighteenth century by careless attempts to up- 
hold the building. In the transepts and triforia of the 
choir a large number of openings were bricked up, many of 
the windows were deprived of their tracery, and whitewash 
was applied in so reckless a manner as to cover up the 
capitals of columns and other details. At this time there 
were a large number of ancient frescoes adorning the walls, 
and these were also covered over. The present semi- 
circular groined roof of the nave was substituted for the 
original flat wooden one. 

The Cathedral had unfortunately long before suffered from 
even more violent injury during the week in August, 1566, 

* " Recherches sur I'Histoire de I'Eglise cathedrale de Notre Dame 
de Tournai." Par L. d'Anstaign, 1842. 



112 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

when the iconoclasts committed their depredations and 
destructions in the Netherlands. The medieval decora- 
tions and furniture of the church were removed, and other 
spoliation accomplished. And just a little more than a 
century and a quarter later, in 1794, when the French 
Revolutionary troops overran the land, it was deprived of 
its revenues and of many objects of its treasury ; whilst its 
sculpture and stained glass, with few exceptions (with the 
notable one of the seven beautiful windows in the southern 
transept recording the munificence of Chilperic), werei 
defaced or destroyed. . 

One of the best points whence to study the elevation! 
of the nave, which is of great interest, is from the south, 
where its distinguishing features — three tiers of round- 
headed windows — can be seen, one lighting the clerestory, 
another the triforium, and the third and lowest the aisle. 

The towers, four in number, flanking the transepts, are 
of very graceful proportions. The fact that the details of 
the enrichment varies may be taken to indicate that they 
were built at different periods. They all have quadrangular 
spires, and the central tower is square with a short 
octangular spire. The influence of German architecture is 
very striking in this portion of the church, although there is 
withal a great independence of feeling shown. From the 
south-west corner of the Square the group of five spires and 
the environment gives to the church an appearance of 
impressiveness and dignity, which cannot fail to be noted 
with delight by even the most unlearned observer. Formerly 
an additional pair of towers flanked the eastern apse, and at 
that period the effect must have indeed been beautiful. 

Although the choir of this Cathedral, to many experts 
and to amateurs generally, presents a most complete and 
interesting example of Gothic architecture, it has its critics, 
some of whom, including Louis Gonse, in his well-known 
work, " LArt Gothique," published some twenty years ago, 
refers to it in a very disparaging manner. M. Gonse con- 
tends that the architect of Tournai choir must have been 
inexperienced, and had made but a superficial and unsatis- 
factory study of such cathedrals and churches as those of 
Amiens, Beauvais, and St. Quentin, which he calls " les 
types picards de son voisinage." 

But whatever the disparagers of Tournai Cathedral, and 



TOURNAI 113 

its wonderfully impressive choir in particular, may say, to 
the ordinary visitor, and even to the student, it remains one 
of the finest buildings of the period in Belgium. Another 
writer of discrimination* is almost equally severe in his 
criticism of the choir, though bestowing warm praise both 
upon the fine Romanesque nave and the Transitional 
transepts ; whilst noting the considerable beauty as regards 
proportion which the choir undoubtedly possesses, he goes 
on to remark that the general effect is " frail and weak in 
the extreme." 

Some idea of the unusual loftiness of this portion of the 
Cathedral may be gained when it is remembered that its 
roof outside is on a level with the summit of the central 
tower. 

One of the most interesting features of the exterior of the 
Cathedral to most people will undoubtedly be the extremely 
curious sculptures found on the outside of the north and 
south doorways. They are comprised in a blank semi- 
circular arch above the first-named door, which is enclosed 
in another arch formed by the three curves, in shape like a 
trefoil. The central curve of the latter being higher than 
the other two is formed by two curves, which, as they meet 
in a point, produce the true ogee. The jambs beneath these 
are also richly carved. In his excellent work,t Monsieur de 
Renaud has fully described the different sculptures, his 
contention being that the general subjects of these works 
represent, under many satirical and grotesque forms, the 
Norman destroyers of Tournai. 

Amt»ng the many sculptures found on the jambs of the 
north doorway is seen a representation of the devil carrying 
off a man who is dressed in embroidered vestments, has a 
bag hanging round his neck, and is wearing a helmet. The 
man is seated astride the devil's neck, and holds on to his 
horns, his legs appearing to the front of the strange sup- 
porter, who clasps them with one hand, whilst with the 
other he gives his own tail a twist. 

Seen above this is an angel, and below it is the coiled 
serpent so often found in Romanesque work, and of very 
obvious meaning. 

Unfortunately, the sculptures which are seen on the flat 

* Fergusson, in his " Handbook of Gothic Architecture." 
t " Monographic de la Cathedrale de Tournai." 
8 



114 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

of the doorway, enclosed by the jambs and the architrave, 
are so defaced as to be now unrecognizable. 

At the sides there are some other subjects, among them a 
reconciliation, where a king is seen joining the hands of two 
people ; whilst the uppermost carving depicts a town gate 
— possibly that of Tournai — set between lofty walls, and 
half-open. A man is seen entering the gate bearing a load 
on his shoulders, and Monsieur de Renaud and other 
authorities think that this is intended to suggest the return 
of the people to Tournai after the departure of the Norman 
marauders. 

On another panel a man is shown cutting off the head of 
a soldier with a big sword. This subject has been the 
matter of much dispute, some favouring the idea that it is 
Scriptural, and a representation of the incident of David 
and Goliath, whilst others incline to the view that it is 
merely a representation of an execution. 

The outer mouldings of the architrave have grotesque 
and also symbolical figures carved upon them. 

The cap of one of the side-shafts is very finely carved in 
a grotesque, representing a seated, beaked, and winged 
monster, presumed to be the spirit of evil, and quite 
Assyrian in character. 

The exterior band of mouldings comprise palmettes, 
masks, and griffins. Some writers have been accustomed 
to describe these carvings as barbarous and rough, but to 
do so is to entirely overlook the intention and the astonish- 
ing decorative skill of their producers of long ago. It would 
be difficult to find examples of similar sculptures which 
excel them in the spirit and precision of their workmanship, 
or the grotesque excellence and forcefulness of the ideas 
which are portrayed. 

The sculptures of the south doorway resemble the above 
in general character, but they are much less varied, and 
would appear to have been restored. They chiefly comprise 
figures of armed men who guard the entrance of the church, 
one of these threatening intruders with a sword. 

The figures on the jambs of these doors are evidently 
allegorical, and one sees beneath the figure of a knight the 
word superbia and beneath that of a woman bearing a cross 
the word pietas. 

Of these sculptures generally, Monsieur de Caumont says: 



TOURNAI 115 

" At all periods imagination has been one of the chief 
elements of art, and one must therefore not be astonished 
if one finds in the ornamentation of the Middle Ages con- 
ventional figures like one has also found in the architecture 
of Greece and in the architecture of Rome." 

Upon entering the building one cannot fail to be im- 
pressed with a sense of its grandeur. The severe and solid- 
looking Romanesque nave contrasting with remarkable 
effect with the Gothic choir, and Transitional transepts. 

The choir presents, indeed, a great contrast to the sever- 
ity of the nave. Here one has an astonishing access of 
light, with windows filled with stained glass, separated 
from one another only by slender piers, and mullions of 
rod-like tenuity. The triforium is most elegant, and con- 
trasts sharply with the vast and somewhat dim gallery of 
the nave, and large clerestories take the place of the dim 
arcades surmounting the gallery of the latter, and the aisles 
below it. The western half of the building is most im- 
pressive in its grandeur, there is little ornament. The 
choir, on the other hand, arouses one's keenest interest by 
its lightness, and the audacity (which Fergusson especially 
notes) of its builder, who gave to it such fairy-like piers, 
bent in two curves, one inwards and the other outwards, 
seemingly scarcely sufficient in strength to support the 
roof. 

In place of the broad and stilted semicircular arches 
Testing on massive piers to form an arcade dividing the 
nave from the aisles, in the choir we have sharply pointed 
and richly moulded lancets, supported upon square piers of 
extreme slenderness, at the angles of which very slim shafts 
are placed, whilst reed-like triple vaulting shafts reach from 
the roof to the floor. The nave isles are but dimly lighted 
by the windows, which are placed high up in the wall. 
The choir aisles, on the contrary, are illuminated by huge 
glazed spaces (they in a measure scarcely appear at first 
sight as windows), which seem hardly divided by the narrow 
buttresses. Of walls proper there are none. There are 
five trigonal chapels radiating from the eastern end, lighted 
in the same way, and being open to the choir, aisle or 
chevet, they give an unusual appearance to this part of the 
building. 

The stained glass here, though for the most part quite 



ii6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

modern, has been designed with unusual taste and skill. 
The subjects of the windows are taken from the lives of 
Childeric and Sigebert, such as the giving of privileges to 
the Cathedral, incidents in the history of the diocese, and 
with the lives of St. Piat and Eleutherius. The most 
ancient portions of the stained glass were the work of 
Theodore Stueurbout, of Haarlem, who was a follower of 
the Bruges school of painters, and was possibly a pupil 
of the great Hans Memlinc himself. 

Another feature of this church which will at once strike 
the intelligent observer is the immense gallery, which is of 
the same extent as the nave aisles. It is not an uncommon 
feature of Romanesque buildings, and very possibly arose 
from the vast passages which were appropriated to the use of 
women in Byzantine churches. In our own Abbey church 
of Westminster, which was formerly used by the nuns of 
the sister convent at Barking, the gallery is of somewhat 
similar character, and is of almost the same size as the 
aisles beneath it. It is screened off from view from below 
by the double shafts and beautiful tracery. Norwich Cathe- 
dral (to mention only one other) has a similar feature, 
though of a much less imposing size. 

From the western doors at Tournai one obtains a very 
impressive vista of the interior of the cathedral. And one 
is at once conscious that much of its charm arises in no 
small measure from the skilful way in which the effect of 
light and shade has been brought about by the use of stained 
glass in the choir. This is in some measure crude, but is 
effective as a whole ; so that when looking along the dimly 
lighted nave the eye takes in the eastern portion of the 
building, which even on a bright summer's day, as when last 
we saw it, is filled with ambient and subdued light, which 
spreads out behind the eighteenth-century group of St. 
Michael in combat with the Evil One, by Nicolas Lecreux, 
a native of the town, which in dark bronze rises above the 
screen, and materially assists in the pleasing and even 
impressive effect of the whole. 

The Early Renaissance screen which crosses the entrance 
to the choir, and projects into the space beneath the lantern, 
is the work of Corneille de Vriendt, and is one of the most 
graceful of its kind, and is in marble of various colours. 

There are several details of the choir which are by no 



TOURNAI 117 

means worthy of it. Among them the high altar, formerly 
in the Church of St. Martin, which, although made of costly 
materials, is poor in design, and lacking in dignity for the 
position it occupies ; and the bishop's throne, stalls, and the 
screens which fill in the arches of the choir are not good 
enough for it. 

Amongst the pictures and treasures of the church worth 
noting are the painting on the wall of one of the chapels in 
the ambulatory, representing " The Triumph of Death," a 
very favourite thirteenth-century subject; the large picture 
by Rubens in the first chapel, commencing on the right side 
of the rood loft, the subject of which is "The Rescue of 
Souls from Purgatory," an imposing composition, which, 
however, bears traces of having been rather recklessly 
retouched. In the Chapel of St. Louis — the first of the 
south right aisle — is a Jordaens : " The Crucifixion." And 
in the fourth chapel of the ambulatory a " Christ Healing 
the Blind," an early work of Louis Gallait, a native of 
Tournai. In the next chapel is an interesting series of 
pictures : " Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Mary," by 
Lancelot Blondeel, a sixteenth-century painter and architect 
of Bruges. 

To the right of the high altar is the shrine of the Virgin, 
or Chasse de Notre Dame, a fine early thirteenth-century 
work in painted and gilded wood by Nicholas de Verdun, 
with scenes from the life of Christ in bas-reliefs and 
medallions. On the other side of the sanctuary is the 
famous shrine or reliquary of St. Eleutherius, also late 
Romanesque, and dating probably a quarter of a century 
later than that of the Virgin. This chasse is an exceedingly 
beautiful example of the goldsmith's art of the period. It is 
of silver gilt, adorned on the sides with seated figures of the 
Apostles under tabernacle work. There are four figures on 
each side, and at the ends are those of Christ and the Saint 
himself. The gable above the last named contains wingless 
angels, bearing the symbols of his martyrdom. St. Eleu- 
therius is seen holding a model of the cathedral, such as is 
always given to founders, and is standing upon a two-headed 
monster, representing heresy and persecution. 

The Treasury of the Cathedral contains a fine and most 
interesting collection of ancient robes. Among them is a 
chasuble, traditionally supposed to have been given to the 



ii8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

cathedral by Thomas a Becket, who visited Tournai in 
1165. The Cathedral at Sens also possesses a chasuble, 
ornamented with the mitre of this archbishop. And a mitre 
(once at Sens) of a Becket ultimately came into the posses- 
sion of the late Cardinal Wiseman. There is also an altar 
frontal of white silk, of great interest, embroidered with a 
tree of Jesse. The figures are well done, and are wrought 
in high relief, with the stiff conventionally conceived arms 
of the tree embracing the figure. The effect is striking. 
There is a piece of tapestry, the work of Pietro Fere, of 
Arras, dating from the year 1402, representing the Plague 
at Tournai and some scenes from the history of the city's 
patron saints. There is also a fine fourteenth-century 
psalter, and an ivory diptych dating from the eleventh. Not 
the least interesting item of the collection is the mantle, 
embroidered with subjects from the Passion and the Last 
Supper, which Charles V. wore when at Tournai, holding a 
chapter of the Golden Fleece.* There is also a beautiful 
ivory crucifix t attributed to Jerome Duquesnoy, who lived 
in the first half of the seventeenth century. 

The three other churches of Tournai — St. Quentin, St. 
Nicholas, and St. Jacques — all of them form interesting 
examples of the bold though rather coarse Early Pointed 
style of architecture, which so much prevailed in this 
district of Belgium in the thirteenth century. The towers 
of the two latter are very graceful, and the churches — chiefly 
First Pointed — have several features in common. Perhaps 
the most readily remarked is that the clerestory with its 
lancet windows is set behind a continuous arcade. 

* The Military Order, instituted by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 
at his marriage in 1429, and known as the "Toison d'or," or "Golden 
Fleece." It was said to have been founded on account of the profit 
Philip made from wool. The number of knights was thirty-one. They 
wore a scarlet cloak lined with ermine, with the collar open, and the 
Duke's cipher in the form of a B, to signify Burgundy, together with 
flints striking fire with the motto, Ante ferity guam Jlamma riiicat. At 
the end of the collar depended a golden fleece, with the device Prettu?n 
non vile laborum. 

The Order afterwards became common to all the princes of the House 
of Austria as descendants of Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, last 
Duke of Burgundy, who had married Maximilian of Austria in 1477. The 
Order now belongs to both Austria and Spain in conformity with a treaty 
made on April 30, 1725. The present King of England and other royal 
princes are knights. 

t By some the crucifix is thought to be by Flamingo, the famous 
Flemish sculptor. 




DOCK OF THE CATHEDRAL. TOURNAI 



TOURNAI 119 

St. Jacques is chiefly in the lancet phase of the First 
Pointed style, but the chancel (apparently rebuilt some- 
where about the fourteenth century), has an aisleless apse 
of German type. The spire is a well-proportioned one, 
springing from the tower at the western end of the nave, 
which has open turrets with pinnacles at each angle. 
Among the chief features of the interior are the tall rounded 
columns which support the arches of the nave. They 
have bell-shaped capitals, which are carved with a bold 
foliated design. The raison d'etre of the arch which is 
thrown across the nave at its juncture with the transepts is 
somewhat obscure, as there is no central tower, but the 
feature is on the whole a pleasing one, and, at all events, 
tends to increase the apparent length of the nave, which, 
without the interposition of the arch, would appear rather 
disproportioned as regards length when compared with its 
height. 

The church has been restored in recent years by Bryenne, 
the work being of a thorough, sympathetic, and intelligent 
character ; and there is much modern stained glass in its 
windows, mostly of a good character. There are also some 
notable tombs, among the most interesting and important 
a Gothic one of Nicholas d'Avesnes. 

The Church of St. Quentin, on the north-west side of the 
Grande Place, suffers considerably from being built in 
among houses. It is a quite small but picturesque building 
with a Modern Pointed eastern fagade masking a Roman- 
esque aisleless nave, into the transepts of which have been 
introduced at their angles four semi-circular chapels. 

The roof of the body of the church is rather low, with the 
arches very broad and obtusely pointed ; the roof of the 
transept being lower than the nave, which last is now flat 
whatever it may have originally been, that of the chancel 
and transept is ribbed ; the ribs of the crossing resting 
upon banded vaulting shafts, which is a very uncommon 
feature in Belgium, where, indeed, bands are seldom 
seen. 

The church was originally founded by St. Eloi (Eligius), 
the friend of King Dagobert, who was Bishop of Tournai 
and Noyon. Eloi did more than anyone else towards the 
dissemination of Christianity in Flanders. Tournai, how- 
ever, was pagan, and his efforts at first met with small 



I20 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

success, but not discouraged, in addition to the Church of 
St. Quentin he founded the great and famous Abbey of 
St. Martin, the site of which was, some three-quarters of a 
century ago, converted into a park and public gardens. A 
few traces of the Romanesque pillars of the crypt are still to 
be seen. 

At the death of the saint at Noyon on December i, 659, 
the Queen of Clovis II. (originally a slave girl from Britain, 
but eventually canonized as St. Bathildis), came from Paris, 
and " shed floods of tears over the holy man's corpse, which 
she would fain have removed to Chelles, had the people of 
Noyon permitted it to go." Bathildis, who (possibly from 
her own experiences as a slave) was always, we are told, 
tender-hearted to the poor and oppressed, had given all her 
jewels, except a pair of bracelets, to the poor, had a cross 
made of these and placed it at the head of the saint's 
monument, covering it with a canopy of cloth of gold. The 
saint, originally a blacksmith, afterwards became a gold- 
smith, and wrought many shrines, among the most noted 
that of St. Martin at Tours. The so-called *' Chair of 
Dagobert," for a long time attributed - to him — which 
Napoleon used as a throne, and from which he distributed 
the honours to the army of invasion assembled at Boulogne 
— has since been discovered to be only an antique curule 
chair with an eleventh-century back. 

With reference to the saint's work as a blacksmith there 
is an amusing tradition. It is said that one day a horse was 
brought to him possessed of an evil spirit or the devil, which 
caused the animal to kick most terribly. The saint, not to 
be deterred from his task, adopted the delightfully simple 
and original expedient of cutting off the horse's leg, placing 
it on the anvil, and when the shoe was properly fixed (the 
story goes) he made the sign of the cross, and not only fixed 
on the leg again to the horse quite comfortably, but also 
drove out the devil ! 

The Church of St. Brice is on the eastern side of the river, 
and is best reached from the Cathedral by the Place St. 
Pierre, Rue des Puits de I'Eau, and Rue de Pont. It is an 
interesting Early Gothic building dating from the twelfth 
century, but sadly disfigured by clumsy additions and altera- 
tions in the pseudo-Italian style. The great interest of this j 
church to most tourists is the fact that near the north door 



1 



TOURNAI 121 

in May, 1653, (some authorities give the date as 1665) whilst 
digging in the foundations of a house then just pulled down, 
the workmen came upon an ancient burial-place about six 
feet below the surface. Upon opening it, two men's skulls 
were found, some bones, and the teeth and jaw-bone of a 
horse, also a horseshoe in a good state of preservation. 
About a couple of yards distant from these remains, whilst 
digging further they found a great number (upwards of three 
hundred it is said) of golden bees ; a gold clasp with a head 
of Childeric in relief; a leather bag, which was broken open 
and disclosed more than a hundred gold medals, and two 
hundred silver ones ; part of a sword, a javelin, and the iron 
of an axe ; a small enamelled gold head of a bull ; a ball of 
crystal, a gold case with a stylus for writing, a gold ring of 
large size, ornaments in the same metal from a sword and 
scabbard ; ditto of harness for a horse, and other ornaments 
and articles. The most important discovery, however, was 
the large gold ring bearing a seal, upon which was engraved 
a man's figure surrounded by the lettering CHILDERICI 
REGIS. This identified the remains with those of Childeric. 
One of the skulls is supposed to have been that of the 
marshal of the Prankish king. 

Thus in the endeavour to do some justice to the church 
of a saint, and in clearing away rotten tenements from the 
propinquity of it, the long-lost grave of the great Childeric 
was opened to the light of day. Since he had been buried 
not only had many generations lived and died above his 
resting-place, but almost as many royal houses and dynasties 
had come and gone. The Merovingian, Carlovingian, 
Capetian, Valois, Orleans and Angouleme had all passed 
away ; and the house of Bourbon itself — which claimed to 
have some of his blood in its veins — had come to a strange 
pass, kings and emperors — Chlotaire, Sigebert, Chilperic, 
Fredegonda, Pepin, Charlemagne, the Counts of Flanders 
and Counts of Hainault, many English kings — had all come 
and gone whilst the remains of Childeric lay unmarked and 
unhonoured in the darkness. 

Most of the treasures found in Childeric's tomb were 
carried off to Paris in 1664 ; and many of them were stolen 
from the Bibliotheque Nationale in the year 1831. Amongst 
the number were the three hundred golden bees with which 
it is thought Childeric's royal robes were decorated. It was 



122 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



I 



these emblems that Napoleon the Great used for ornaments 
in preference to the fleurs-de-lis of France as the insignia of 
imperial dignity on the occasion of his coronation. 

Among the other interesting buildings and spots in this 
ancient town, in which the student would fain linger, and 
seek in some measure to re-create the pageantry and romance 
of its past history, is the former Cloth Hall, now in part a 
Municipal Museum and Picture Gallery. The building is 
an interesting Renaissance structure dating from the first 
decade of the seventeenth century. It was carefully restored 
about thirty years ago. 

The salon on the first floor contains a large number of 
pictures both ancient and modern of varying merit. Many 
are those of artists of the Tournai school. There is a fine 
and dramatic picture, which serves an excellent purpose in 
re-creating a famous episode in the history of the city in the 
picture of " The Defence of Tournai by the Princesse 
D'Epinoy" by Van Severdonck. We also noticed an inter- 
esting painting by Louis Galliat, pupil of Hennequin, '* The 
Guilds of Brussels paying the Last Honours to the Bodies 
of Counts Egmont and Hoorn." 

In the Galleries are some remarkable antiquities, including 
fourteenth-century ivories; one a "Coronation of the Virgin." 
But to many like ourselves probably the case containing manu- 
scripts and miniatures amongst which we noted a psalter 
once belonging to Henry VIII. of England ; a " Book of the 
Hours " dating from the later end of the thirteenth century, 
and a fourteenth-century copy of " Le Roman de la Rose," 
will prove of the greatest interest. The fifteenth-century 
cope of Bishop Guillaume Filastre, of Tournai, should also 
be noted. 

There are still in Tournai some good examples of medieval 
architecture to reward the searcher in the by-ways. In the 
Rue de Paris, near the Belfry, is an excellent example of the 
domestic architecture of this period ; and in the Rue des 
Meaux still stands the Grange de I'Abbaye St. Martin, 
dating from 1633, nowadays converted to the use of a 
cafe. 

Of the ancient walls and ramparts much has disappeared 
during the last few years, and quite a considerable amount 
we found since a former visit of but a few years ago. Even 
the old Pont des Trous, so massive and picturesque, so full 



TOURNAI 123 

of historic interest, and valuable as a relic of architecture, is 
threatened, and may, even before these words appear in 
print, be removed. 

One leaves clean, picturesque, and, to all appearances, 
prosperous, Tournai with regret, not unmindful, perhaps, 
that before us lies the Belgian *' Black Country," known as 
** Le Borinage," where three-fourths of the 130,000 souls who 
" hve both on the earth and in the earth, delving amid the 
black deposits of vast primeval forests," dwell. 

The road out of Tournai towards Mons is pleasant and 
picturesque to Antoign and Peruwelz, after which one gradu- 
ally enters the grim and dusty Borinage. From Antoign 
to Fontenoy — the scene on May 11, 1745, of Marshal Saxe's 
sanguinary victory over the Allied Forces commanded by the 
Duke of Cumberland — is but a divergence of three or four 
miles, and is quite worth making. Close to Fontenoy is the 
fine old Gothic chateau of the Princesse de Ligne, full of 
delightful old-fashioned furniture, tapestry, carving, pictures, 
and curios. 

Assuming, however, that the road from Antoign direct to 
Peruwelz is taken, a very pleasant route is by the tree-shaded 
towpath of the river, along which picturesque and gaily- 
painted barges, laden with hay, market produce, or wood, 
come and go, drawn by Flemish horses whose strength 
seems extraordinary ; or grimy lighters filled with the pro- 
duce of the *' Borinage " — black coal, which strikes one as 
rather lustreless and dusty, unlike the " Derby Brights" and 
Welsh hard steam coal, or anthracite of Britain. 

Then the way, whether by road or rail, becomes less pic- 
turesque, though not without that element of interest which 
always attaches to scenery indicative of strenuous toil. As 
one advances towards Mons, past an occasional field green 
with weeds as often as with grass ; past vistas of huge 
chimney-stacks, the networks of aerial tramways of the 
mines, and, most curious and impressive of all, vast mounds 
and pyramids of slag — hundreds of thousands of tons in 
some of them — the beginnings of which no man now living 
could remember. Here, amid these mountains of shale, one 
realizes for the first time on the journey the meaning and 
aspect of industrial Belgium. Except for the absence of 
the clarity of Egyptian atmosphere, one can well imagine, 
as the sun sinks red behind them, and the sky takes on, first 



124 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

a golden yellow, and then a purple, as of Egypt itself, that 
one was looking upon the Pyramids. 

This district, it has been truly said, constitutes one of the 
most remarkable centres of the national life of Belgium. 
Not to have seen it is to have missed an essential part, which 
must weigh in any estimate one may form of the Belgian 
race and its industries. 

The growth of coal-mining during the last half-century 
has been phenomenal. Fifty years or so ago, the output 
from the mines of the " Borinage " district was not much 
more than two million tons per annum; nowadays that has 
been multiplied at least by ten. The mines are almost, 
without exception, worked by joint-stock companies, or, as 
they are called in Belgium, Societes Anonymes. At the outset 
of the coal industry, the State, for the purpose of encouraging 
the getting of the mineral, waived its claim to royalties and 
dues, and there are none payable in Belgium to landowners. 
But it is generally thought that, with the discovery of any new 
coal-fields, the Government may put a tax on the coal raised 
from them, or arrange some other system of royalties. It 
thus came about that the small body of capitalists who got 
possession of the great coal-fields of the " Borinage " in 
Hainault have been enabled to work and exploit the same 
at comparatively little cost and at great profit to themselves. 
The original owners, however, have, in many cases, got rid 
of their interests at huge premiums by means of sale of their 
shares when the richness of the fields had been demon- 
strated. In the early days of coal-mining — and, indeed, 
until more recent times, when labour became organized — the 
Belgian miner worked twelve and fourteen hours a day 
underground for a wage of less than a pound a week. The 
effect of this almost unremitting, arduous, and unhealthy 
toil has been the production of a race dwarf-like in stature, 
some of the men being considerably below five feet in height, 
with the women and children shorter still. This strange 
and weird type, which chiefly comes of the third and fourth 
generation of miners, is particularly noticeable at such places 
as Frameries and other towns, where mining has been in 
existence for a century or more. 

Capital managed to control the mining labour market 
and the mining industry for so long in Belgium that, until 
quite recent years, the Belgian miner had a harder battle to 



TOURNAI 125 

fight than any other to secure proper and even humane 
treatment. This state of things could not have continued 
as long as it did but for the fact that the Belgian miner was 
willing and accustomed to maintain himself on so extremely 
slender a wage. The standard of living and comfort was 
low almost beyond belief; the education of miners' children 
almost entirely neglected, and a brutalizing of the type could 
only result. 

In Hainault the majority of even the present generation 
of miners are illiterate, and this state of things will not be 
remedied until the State not only makes education compul- 
sory, but places wise and stringent restrictions upon the 
employment of child labour in connection with the mines. 
The mere non-employment underground can afford no real 
remedy. 

A visit to the " Borinage " — even a passage through it — is 
no pleasant experience. The standard of morality is low ; 
the physical condition of the people is lamentable. There 
are no resorts, nor clubs, for the miners save the cercles of the 
Socialists, the estaminet, the cabaret. And at the two last 
named, men, women, and children often see and hear what 
is degrading, and indulge to excess in the drinking oifaro (a 
kind of beer), or worse, genievre, or gin. An even more viru- 
lent spirit, which is very popular with the miners, is schnick, 
which is sold at the rate of a large wine-glassful for ten 
centimes. 

Child-marriages in the ** Borinage " are common and a 
curse, the effect of which is spreading disaster through the 
length and breadth of the mining district ; indeed, so low a 
standard of morality and good feeling prevails that the miner, 
when seeking a wife, will choose without compunction the 
girl who has had the greatest number of illegitimate children 
— this because he hopes that they will contribute by their 
work to the household expenses. It is quite a usual thing 
to find in a miner's cottage, with his own children, four or 
five others, often of different parentage — the sons and 
daughters of the miner's wife before marriage, and by other 
unions than the existing one. 

It is the habits and customs to which we have referred 
which make Hainault a dark blot upon the map of Belgium. 
A district notorious for its immorality, crime, and brutalized 
population. 



126 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

As one cycles along the roads on the way to Mons, roads 
which from the grey-whiteness of those we have up to the 
present traversed have gradually become black, one meets 
at sundown the stunted generation of miners flowing in their 
hundreds and thousands out of the colliery gates, dull with 
fatigue, and often bemused with the effects of the schnick 
they have been drinking all day. Nor are the women and 
girls more pleasant figures ; perhaps even less so. One 
passes hundreds of them, low of stature, with bare arms 
grimed with the dust of the coal they have been hauling or 
tipping out of huge wicker baskets upon railway sidings into 
the awaiting trucks, faces hard with the degradation of 
unfitting toil, arms and figures like those of prize-fighters — 
masses of muscle, almost denuded of any curve or softness. 
At first one may mistake them for gangs of boys and lads. 
Their heads are generally bound round with a piece of 
cotton stuff (the only attempt they seem to make towards 
womanliness is to guard their hair from the coal-dust), and 
they wear a shirt or blouse little differing at first sight from 
those of their husbands and brothers, and, if the day be hot, 
open almost to the waist. Many wear wide zouave knicker- 
bockers of red flannel, others short, skimpy skirts. Often 
their muscular legs are bare, and their feet merely thrust 
into wooden sabots. Often, too, their feet are shoeless. 
Beings which those gifted with the kindliest charity can 
scarcely look upon save with disgust. 

The tender-hearted, the fastidious, those for whom an 
" under-world" such as might inspire a modern Dante to a 
modern *' Epic of Hades " has any terror, should neither 
visit nor attempt to pass through the " Borinage " save by a 
swiftly travelling train. It is an experience which breeds 
nightmares, and for a time, at least, shakes one's faith in 
the upward trend of the human race. 

Even Charleroi and the district round about, with its iron 
furnaces, which make the countryside a Dantesque Inferno 
of a night, when the red, licking flames flare above the 
black and sombre furnace mouths, and redden the sky and 
cast weird shadows, is preferable. 

Mons, the capital of Hainault, stands high above the 
Trouille, though the country through which one approaches 
it from Tournai is not really hilly. Caesar was at Mons 
(where has he not traditionally been ?), and left behind him 



TOURNAI 127 

a hill fort of considerable strategic importance. In the 
fourteenth century Jean d'Avesnes strongly fortified the 
town, and from that date onwards it saw the coming and 
going of armies, as did so many other Hainault towns. In 
May, 1572, the town fell into the hands of Prince Louis of 
Orange, who held it against the forces of the Duke of Alva 
till the middle of the following September, and by so doing 
enabled the northern provinces of the Low Countries to 
successfully throw off the Spanish yoke. The town was 
captured by Louis XIV. in i6gi, and held by the French 
for a period of six years, but was given back to the Spaniards 
at the end of that time. Mons saw the entrance of the 
victorious Marlborough and Prince Eugene after the Battle 
of Malplaquet on September 11, 1709, and the defeat of the 
French under Marshal Villars, and the allied troops 
occupied it for some time. Its vicissitudes were, however, 
by no means ended, for in 1714, by the Treaty of Madrid, 
it was assigned to Austria, and was retaken by the French 
in 1742, and again by the Republican troops in 1792. As 
has been the case at Courtrai and many other old fortified 
towns of Belgium, the ancient ramparts and fortifications 
have been converted into public boulevards, from which 
some pretty views of the surrounding country are obtainable. 
Mons of to-day is a pleasant, bustling town of some 
30,000 inhabitants, combining with its modern air some 
interesting features of former times. Although most of the 
tourist life seems to centre round the station and in the 
lower part of the town, where are the chief — though most 
of them are unpretentious — hotels, the real centre of the 
town is the Grande Place, on which takes place on Trinity 
Sunday under the shadow of the ancient citadel, the 
quaint medieval fete known as La Parade du Lumecon, in 
which is a contest with a dragon, somewhat reminiscent of 
St. George and the Dragon. The hero is called Gilles 
de Chin, and the heroine is a princess, who was kept a 
prisoner by the monster in the forest near the town. It 
is a quaint festival and pageant well worth seeing if one 
happens to be anywhere in Hainault at the time it is per- 
formed. On the occasion of the fete, it is the custom to 
display a wooden imitation of the famous Mons cannon, 
said to have been used at the Battle of Cr^cy, when a 
contingent of Mons citizens fought against the French on 



128 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the side of the English and Edward III., who had married 
Eleanor, Countess of Hainault. 

The Hotel de Ville is an interesting, though uncompleted, 
Late Gothic building. It dates from the middle of the 
fifteenth century, and has ten windows in the upper story, 
whilst statuettes adorn the facade in niches between the 
windows. In the central baroque tower is a curious clock, 
the work of Louis Ledoux, by which the inhabitants of 
Mons, and more especially those in the vicinity of the 
Grande Place, set some considerable store. The courtyard 
of the Hotel de Ville is interesting, and the interior of the 
building, with its Gothic room, with large paintings illus- 
trative of the history of the town, by Modeste Carlier, 
Hennebicq, and Paternostre, are worth seeing. We noticed, 
among other modern pictures hung in one of the large 
rooms, in particular some quite excellent portraits — several 
by local artists — of Mons celebrities of the past and present. 

The two buildings on either side of the Hotel de Ville, 
the Maison de la Toison d'Or and the Chapel of St. George, 
with their Renaissance fronts, are worth attention. 

There is an interesting library in the Rue des Gades, far 
better stocked with valuable and important works than is 
usually the case in towns of a similar size. Among the 
upwards of 40,000 volumes it contains are a considerable 
number of early illuminated manuscripts, several of which, 
we noted, contained miniatures of great interest. The 
bibliophile and the student are likely to linger in this library 
of Mons, and there is a good deal to interest even the casual 
visitor who has any liking for books and manuscripts. 

The most important and interesting building remaining 
in Mons is undoubtedly the fine Late Gothic cathedral, 
dedicated to St. Waltrudis. It is one of the few great 
churches of Belgium which has escaped disfigurement by 
plaster and whitewash. For this reason it presents a very 
interesting example of the true decoration — simple, but 
effective and pleasing — of the time. Commenced in the 
middle of the fifteenth century from designs by the famous 
architect of the beautiful Hotel de Ville at Louvain, Matthew 
de Layens, the choir was completed in 1502, the transepts 
taking nearly twenty years longer, and the nave not being 
finished until 1589. Even then some slight additions and 
embellishments were found necessary in 1621. The tower 



TOURNAI 129 

was never built ; the church possessing only a small spire, 
placed above the crossing, and elegant Gothic pinnacles. 
Prior to i8g6 the church was much masked by contiguous 
buildings, but now can be more satisfactorily viewed and 
appreciated. It is distinguished both inside and out for 
boldness and elegance of design, the flying buttresses with 
their crocketted pinnacles being a notable feature of the 
exterior elevation. Slender clustered columns, sixty in 
number, rising without capitals to the vaulting and key- 
stones, at once attract the eye, and the general effect of the 
interior is one of space and elegance. The church is lighted 
by no less than ninety windows, and under those of the 
nave and transepts is a very tasteful triforium. The chief 
dimensions of the church give a good idea of its fine propor- 
tions, the extreme length being 355 feet ; breadth, 116 feet ; 
and height, 80 feet. The stained glass of the choir, dating 
from the sixteenth century, has been not very successfully 
restored. The rich, though modern, reliquary of the patron 
saint of the church, who died in 685, is to be seen behind 
the high altar. The elaborate and somewhat bizarre 
triumphal car, on which the reliquary is borne in procession 
through the streets of the town on the saint's day, is a 
prominent object in the vestibule of the church. 

There is a fine Renaissance altar in the Chapel of Ste. 
Mary Magdalene (the fourth chapel on the left-hand side of 
the ambulatory), by Jacques Dubroeucq, a native of Mons, 
who is also the sculptor of the figures in the choir and at the 
piers below the crossing. Originally the church possessed 
a fine rood loft, dating from the sixteenth century, also by 
this artist. This was, however, destroyed by the Republican 
troops when they took the city in 1792. 

The impression made upon the mind of the visitor as a 
whole by this interesting and finely-proportioned building, 
with its many points of interest, which there is no space to 
describe in detail, is one of considerable charm. It is well 
lighted and, viewed from the west end, is impressive. 

Hard by the Cathedral, in the Place St. Germain, or, 
rather, in the garden which has taken the place of a portion 
of the ancient fortifications, stands a monument to Burgo- 
master Fran9ois Dolez, a memorial in much better artistic 
taste than usual with erections commemorating citizens in 
the towns of our own land. The winged figure surmounting 
9 



I30 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the plinth of stone is of great beauty, and when seen from the 
front harmonizes admirably with the famous Renaissance 
belfry, which rises in the background. The latter, from the 
design of Louis Ledoux, was built in 1662, and restored two 
centuries later by Sury. Mons, as a town, has all the added 
quaintness and interest which comes from being built on the 
sides of a hill, the steeply ascending or descending streets 
affording picturesque and occasionally charming vistas of 
old-time houses and irregular and finely-coloured roofs. 

The military element is strong in Mons, for it is a 
garrison town ; which fact, in a measure, accounts for the 
air of life and bustle in the streets of an evening, a feature 
so often lacking in the old towns of West Flanders. 

The road out of Mons is still black, and the highway of 
the toiling " Borains." Those who like neither dirt nor the 
too evident horrors of unremitting, and for women and 
girls degraded, toil may well pass through it to Charleroi 
and even Namur itself by train. 

Gradually, as one leaves Mons behind, set upon the hill 
which Caesar fortified, and glowing with a mysterious beauty 
given by the sunset, which catches the cupola of the lofty 
belfry, and paints it almost blood red, the " Borinage " com- 
mences to give way to the land of iron workers and iron 
furnaces, and if it be night the scene is weird enough to 
conjure up visions in the minds of travellers of the luridly 
painted Hell of those Belgian romancers who have taken 
this flaming counterpart of the underworld for their back- 
grounds. 

Mariemont, where are some picturesque ruins of the 
chateau built in the middle of the sixteenth century by 
the Regent Mary of Hungary, and burned down but six 
years later by Henri IL, has a great distinction from the 
fact that in the chapel of the modern but prettily situate 
chateau is the famous Shrine of St. Maur, a Romanesque 
reliquary dating from the twelfth century, and the oldest 
known work of art of its kind in Belgium. 

Formerly known as Charnoy, this centre of the south 
Belgian industry was renamed Charleroi in compliment to 
Charles II. of Spain, who founded the industry. It, like 
Tournai, has been the scene of many sieges. The Re- 
pubhcan forces of France attacked it four times in the 
memorable year of 1794. And it was just in sight of the 



TOURNAI 131 

town that the Austrians gained a notable victory over 
the French on May 23 of the same year. But there is 
nothing much in modern Charleroi to deserve pause. 

From Charleroi onwards to delightfully-situate Namur 
our way lies by the banks of the tortuously winding Sambre 
— longer than the direct route, but delightful — past green 
fields, waving corn, apple orchards, and here and there a 
monastery or chateau, charmingly placed in some bend of 
the river, skirting pleasantly wooded hills. Floreffe, set 
upon an eminence, with its picturesque Premonstratensian 
abbey, and interesting stalactite caves, is passed, and a 
little distance further the Abbey buildings of Malonne. 
Hereabouts the valley of the Sambre is thick with ancient 
and picturesque chateaux. And then in a few miles, round 
the bend in the river, Namur comes in sight, its one-time 
strong castle and fortifications set high above the two rivers 
on which the town stands, a verdant green mass against 
the clear sky. 



CHAPTER VI 

NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET, THE VALLEY OF THE MEUSE, AND 
THE ROAD TO BRUSSELS 

NAMUR is not only picturesquely situate and historic- 
ally interesting, but is also a flourishing and very 
pleasant town much frequented by tourists in the 
Ardennes, those on their way down to the beautiful valley 
of the Meuse, or intent upon exploring the environs of the 
ancient capital of the countship which fell to the share 
of Burgundy in 1420. It owes not a little of its present-day 
prosperity to its position upon two navigable rivers, the 
Sambre and the Meuse. The former is now '* canalized,'* 
and a busy highway to the " Borinage " and other parts of 
the country. It is not easy when walking the clean and 
in many cases unusually wide streets of Namur to realize 
that it has not a little commercial importance from its 
being a manufacturing town. Cutlery is made to some 
considerable extent, and the tanning industry is a flourish- 
ing one. 

Namur, from the earliest times onward, has been a place 
of strategic and military importance, and at a very early 
period there was undoubtedly a fortress on the hill now 
crowned by the old fortifications, portions of which have 
been converted into delightful public promenades and 
gardens with fine and entensive views of the town, sur- 
rounding country, and valleys of the Meuse and Sambre. 
A particularly charming peep of the older riverside houses, 
and the bridges spanning the Sambre is looking backward, 
got from a point a little less than half-way up the steeply 
inclining path to the citadel. 

Of recent years Namur has once more become an im- 
portant factor in the chain of fortifications which lie along 

132 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 133 

the Meuse, and is now surrounded by a circle of nine 
detached forts placed at distances of from two and a half to 
a little over four miles. It is for this reason that artists and 
amateur photographers should exercise care when engaged 
in painting or photographing, lest they share the fate of a 
too enterprising friend of our own, who was arrested on a 
charge of espionage for coming within the area of the for- 
tifications whilst using his camera, and was at first — such is 
the " spy mania " on the Continent — treated with some 
amount of harshness. 

Around the Place de la Station are grouped some of the 
most important hotels, and to this spot gravitates most of 
the life, commercial and otherwise, of the city. Approached 
by the wide Boulevard Leopold — into which one strikes by 
way of the Avenue Omailius when one leaves the pleasant 
tow-path of the Sambre, along which we came to enter 
the town — the Place extends eastward until it merges in 
the tree-shadowed Square Leopold (which rather deserves 
the name of Jardin), and thence debouches upon the Place 
Leopold, with its noted statue, by Geefs, of Leopold L, first 
King of the Belgians, formerly Prince Leopold of Saxe- 
Coburg, and husband of Princess Charlotte, only daughter 
of our own King George IV. The Place de la Station, with 
its steam-trams and ever-changing life of the town, is a spot 
of considerable interest. More especially is this so on a 
fete day, when the countryfolk of the valleys of the Sambre 
and Meuse flock into Namur in quaint and picturesque 
holiday costumes. 

Namur is, indeed, a pleasant town, with delightful open 
spaces, and at least one (so far as we have noticed) unique 
feature amongst Belgian towns. Almost every lamp-post is 
a miniature flower-garden. Just below the lantern is placed 
a wirework circular basket, about 3 feet in diameter, filled 
with lobelias, nasturtiums, pink-flowered ivy-leaf geraniums, 
clematis, and other suitable plants, which give the streets 
not only a touch of pleasant colour, but a look as though 
they were perpetually en fete, a custom which might well be 
imitated, at least by some of our own holiday resorts. 

In addition to the charmingly laid-out public walks and 
slopes of the Rampe Verte environing the ancient fortress 
and the modern citadel, there is the pretty Pare Marie 
Louise, with its picturesque sheet of ornamental water and 



134 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

well-shaded walks, at the end of the tree-planted Boulevard 
de la Sambre, and adjoining the Avenue d'Ormalius. From 
the Boulevard and the Park delightful views are obtained 
across the river of the Citadel, which occupies approxi- 
mately the site on which the fortress-dwelling of the Counts 
of Namur originally stood. The latter was replaced towards 
the close of the seventeenth century by a strong fortress, 
the work of Cahorn, the famous Dutch engineer, who was 
the French Vauban's most formidable rival. This was 
captured in 1695 by William III. of England, an account 
of which appears in Sterne, the hero being Uncle Toby, as 
doubtless readers of the immortal " Tristram Shandy " will 
remember. It was partially destroyed by Joseph II., and 
ultimately restored in 1817 by the Dutch. 

The Citadel itself is no longer regarded as a first-class 
or impregnable fortress, the defence of the town and 
environs, as we have mentioned, as well as that of the line 
of communication between Namur and Li^ge and the valley 
of the Meuse, being secured by a circle of nine detached 
forts, which, commenced in 1882 and finished some ten 
years later, are of the latest type of the system which was 
inaugurated by the well-known General Brialmont. 

Namur possesses several fine churches grouped some- 
what closely together, and almost in the centre of the city. 
Of these, that of St. Loup is the most interesting. Erected 
in the Baroque Style of the second quarter of the seven- 
teenth century, it possesses an imposing fagade. The 
interior is spacious, the roof being supported by twelve 
red marble Doric pillars. The choir strikes one as some- 
what flamboyant on account of the large amount of coloured 
marble used in its construction, and the ceilings are covered 
with rather heavily conceived stucco ornamentation. A 
reminder of the days gone by, when Namur was a pawn in 
the games of kings, and its possession deemed a matter of 
great importance, is to be seen in the large hole in the 
ceiling, said to have been caused by one of the shells thrown 
into the town during its siege by Louis XIV. in 1693. Of 
special interest are the wonderfully carved confessionals, 
which, for elaborateness, almost rival those of Notre Dame, 
Antwerp. 

The Cathedral, dedicated to St. Aubin, or St. Alban, 
and built on the site of a very much more ancient church, 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 135 

is a fine building in brick. It is, however, chiefly interesting 
to the student as a good example of the late Renaissance 
buildings, of which there were at one time such a number 
of magnificent examples in Belgium, many of them were 
unhappily pulled down at the time of the suppression of 
religious houses. As one well-known authority has said 
regarding the surviving churches of this particular period — 
" If they were not entirely models of taste, yet they never 
or seldom fell into mere copyings of classicality, which was 
one of the architectural curses of other countries." 

The Cathedral was built during the sixteen years elapsing 
between 175 1 and 1767, the architect was the well-known 
Italian, Pizzoni, of Milan. Of the older church, only the 
belfry remains. The interior is impressive and well-pro- 
portioned. The choir-screen is interesting from the fact 
that it was anciently in the Abbaye de Gembloux, founded 
in 922 by St. Wicbert, or Guibert, and situated some dozen 
miles north-west of Namur, on the direct route to Brussels, 
now the Royal Institution of Agriculture and Forestry. 

There are some interesting statues, notably those of the 
four Fathers of the Church — Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, 
and Jerome, all of which came originally from the Abbaye 
de Floreffe, some six miles out of Namur, along the pic- 
turesque banks of the Sambre. On either side of the high 
altar are figures of St. Peter and St. Paul in marble, the 
work of Laurent Delvaux, of Ghent ; but, with the exception 
of Parmentier's monument to Bishop Pisani de la Guade, 
who died in 1826, and the tomb of Don John of Austria, the 
remaining sculptures and monuments are mediocre, and 
of small interest. The tombstone erected by Alexander 
Farnese to his ^' amatissi avunculo " (beloved maternal 
uncle), Don John, is placed at the back of the high altar. 
We are told the heart and garments of the conqueror at 
the naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, who died 
at his camp near Bouge, about a mile to the east of Namur, 
on October i, 1578, were buried beneath the high altar, 
though his body was removed to the Escorial. 

The wooden pulpit of the Cathedral is a fine one and 
worth attentive examination. It was carved by Karel 
Hendrick Geerts, of Antwerp. The subject is the Madonna 
protecting the city of Namur. The treasury should be 
visited if only for the curious and interesting statuette of 



136 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

St. Blaise dating from the early part of the fourteenth 
century, and the famous golden crown of some two centuries 
earlier date. There are also some gold and silver crosses 
contained in fine reliquaries. 

The town belfry, which stands a little to the north of the 
Hotel de Ville, was built towards the close of the fourteenth 
century, and rebuilt during the sixteenth. 

In the Hotel de Ville, which is an unpretentious building, 
are a few good modern paintings, and very little else of note. 
To the north of the Grande Place, on which the Hotel de 
Ville and Casino stand, is the Convent of the Soeurs de 
Notre Dame. This should be visited by those interested in 
ancient ecclesiastical plate, as the Treasury is unusually rich 
in vessels and other objects of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries. 

The ancient Boucherie, which was erected in 1588, is now- 
turned into an Archaeological Museum containing a very 
large and varied collection of antiquities chiefly relating to 
the Province of Namur. Indeed, it is held to be the most 
complete collection of local archaeology in Belgium, and 
some authorities say in Europe. Many hours might be 
spent in this ancient building examining its wonderful and 
deeply interesting antiquities, which range from skulls from 
the caverns of Marche-les-Dames (some supposed to be 
those of prehistoric man) ; articles of the Stone Age from 
Linciaux, Sclaigneaux, Hastedon and other places ; bronzes 
from Ciney, Jambes, and Franchimont, Ante-Roman and 
Frankish remains, pottery, etc. ; specimens of fifth-century 
glass, and axes from Eprave; Belgic- Roman antiquities 
found at Namur, Anthee, Wancennes, Flavion, and other 
places; and many objects taken from ancient tombs and 
burying-places of the fifth century onwards. There is an 
intensely interesting eleventh or twelfth century sarcophagus 
brought from a church at Hastiere down the Meuse just 
below Dinant. 

The most notable of the old houses appeared to us to be 
found along the left bank of the Sambre and in the narrow 
streets which lead from it back into the centre of the town. 
The tow-path runs along at the back of old-time mills, 
tanneries and breweries for some considerable distance, and 
then one comes to the Boulevard de la Sambre opposite the 
more modern suburb of Salzinnes, and gradually gets back 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 137 

into the country, the river becoming more picturesque 
and rural, and the domain of the blanchisseuses commencing. 
Scores of women are daily at work washing clothes in the 
Sambre — the water of which we did not think as pellucid as 
it might have been — or busily engaged in spreading the 
newly washed linen on the hedgerows or on the coarse grass 
beside the river bank. 

Of *' types" there are many to be met with in a walk 
along this busy river. Bargemen all the world over are 
interesting, and those of Belgium with their generally cheery 
dispositions, good fellowship, and rough vigorous humour 
certainly only need a Belgian W. W. Jacobs to become 
immortalized. For the most part they are hard-working 
souls when en route, and if when lying alongside the quays 
of such towns as Namur, Bruges, Ghent, Termonde or 
Malines they exhibit a liking for spending the greater portion 
of their spare time within the cabarets, and a considerable 
portion of their spare cash in beer, and even in schnick or 
genievre, perhaps one can scarcely wonder. The life is hard 
and monotonous, and as a class the Belgian bargees compare 
favourably with those of our own waterways. Their women 
folk are unusually clean, thrifty, and neat ; and the boats 
themselves in many cases are kept as tidy and clean-washed 
as a yacht, with the long rudder pole gaily painted, flowers 
in boxes on deck, and almost always a dog snugly kennelled 
aft or amidships. 

. The barge is a home for many of the families, and the 
bargee's ambition is to own his own boat. More than one 
*' ancient mariner" of the waterways, picturesque, rugged, 
and looking "hard as nails," might have sat for the 
pen portraits with which the author of "Sunlight Port," 
" Many Cargoes," and " The Lady and the Barge," has 
familiarized us. Artists seemed to us always painting 
barges and bargees on the Sambre at Namur, and outside 
the waterside cabarets, on any afternoon in the week, there 
were seated "types" enough and to spare, none of whom 
seemed to object to posing for photographs, provided a 
cigar or the price of a bock was forthcoming. 

But the beautiful valley of the Meuse calls, and one cannot 
linger indefinitely even in so picturesque and pleasant a 
town as Namur. The interesting old Pont de Jambes, with 
its nine arches, connects Namur with its suburb of Jambes. 



138 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

From Namur the traveller has the choice of three ways of 
reaching Dinant and Givet. The first, by rail, is perhaps 
the most frequently taken ; the second, by the " tourist " 
steamers, which run between Namur and Dinant during 
the summer and vice versa, is very popular in fine weather, 
and, indeed, scarcely a more pleasant and picturesque 
manner of traveUing can be imagined. The third method is 
by either motoring, driving, or cycling, as we did, along the 
fine road which runs most of the way quite close to the 
beautiful Meuse, and yet allows one to become acquainted 
with not only the tiny and quaint villages by its side, but 
also to see something of the scenery of fields, woods, and 
rocky crags. 

The left bank of the river is that most frequented by 
cyclists and motorists, and for some considerable distance 
after the pleasant Boulevard de Meuse and the shady 
garden park of La Plante are left behind, the pedestrian 
and cyclist will do well to continue along the tow-path 
instead of following the main road a little inland from 
the river bank. By doing so, one sees many picturesque 
groups of blanchisseuses industriously washing and rinsing 
their huge piles of linen at the various slipways constructed 
for the purpose along the banks, or carrying on these opera- 
tions from roughly made, though doubtless serviceable, 
punts. The anglers of the Meuse — almost, it would appear, 
as patient as their brothers of the Seine, or the immortal 
one of Burnand's "Happy Thoughts" — are a distinct 
feature. They are of all ages and of both sexes. One 
finds the urchin of Pairelle, Wepion, or Fooz, with his bean 
pole, cotton line, and a bent pin for hook ; the " sporting " 
man from Namur, dressed for the part, with the best steel 
core fly rod and tackle, creel, landing-net, campstool, and 
all complete ; priests who have come out of the monastery, 
or presbytery hard by, who, both by their attitude and in- 
tentness on the sport, inevitably Vemind one of " To-morrow 
will be Friday " ; the father of the family — a true bourgeois 
type — seated in a ** Windsor " chair or its Belgian equiva- 
lent, or standing against the substantial rail which borders 
the tow-path, whilst madame, his wife, sits hard by, either 
knitting or reading the newspaper ; the young lady anglers, 
some of them in dainty muslin frocks and with toy-like rods 
in their hands, and with arch glances for passing pedestrians 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 139 

or cyclists of the other sex. These types are all met with 
along that fine stretch of river frontage which lies between 
Namur and pleasant and picturesque Wepion. 

All the way to Dinant, on both banks of the river, there 
are some beautiful and delightfully placed modern chateaux, 
mostly the property of Namur and Brussels merchant 
princes, and those of other large towns. The natural 
scenery of wooded heights, rocks, and river is wonderfully 
varied when one remembers the comparative confined area, 
and the short distance of some twenty miles which lies 
between Namur and Dinant. At Profondeville, the *' Rock of 
the Arcade " is sure to attract attention, a curious natural 
piercing of the solid cliff, but a little further on the more 
famous marble quarries are passed. From Profondeville, 
onwards to Riviere, the road is charmingly picturesque, and 
the river equally so. Rocky heights shut one in for a mile 
or so, and then comes a break with narrow green fields and 
grassy slopes stretching down to the Meuse on one hand, 
and away to the hills on the other. Then after a sharp 
bend one sees on the opposite bank the quaint old seign- 
eurie of Godinne, half chateau, half farm, with its feet 
literally in the river, white-walled, spired, and with its roofs 
and gables covered with grey-blue slates, throwing reflec- 
tions in the evening light half across the river. This 
beautiful old building is environed on its northern side by 
trees, and with its walls mellowed by age, river mists and 
storms, has the village church, dating from the sixteenth 
century, adjoining it in the same style of architecture. 
Once a portion of the patrimony of the well-known Du 
Mesnil family, it was purchased some years ago by the 
Comte de Brouchoven, who added it to his immense estates 
in this part of the Valley of the Meuse. 

Less than a mile further on the road to Dinant, set in 
yet another bend of the winding river, lies pretty little 
Rouillon, clinging to the flank of a steep hill, with its 
picturesque Chateau of Hestroy. The village is the resort 
of many Brussels folk and even *' foreigners " during the 
summer months. People mostly come to Rouillon for the 
boating (which is delightful), the fishing (which is good), 
and the living (which is cheap). Here we ran across some 
American visitors, who spoke of a charming holiday they 
were having, and chicken to be bought at a franc and a 



t40 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



half apiece ! ** We can just live for next door to nothing at 
all," one of the ladies of the party explained. " And I guess 
it's nice for a change some." 

Almost midway between Rouillon and Hun towers the 
celebrated craggy eminence known in the patois of the dis- 
trict as the Roche aux Chauwes, or *' Crow's Rock," though 
the crows are in reality jackdaws. The rock is an enormous 
slatey-white mass, towering high above the road, riven into 
gullies and crevasses by the action of the weather through 
long ages, and pierced with hundreds of cavities in which 
the jackdaws from time immemorial have nested, making 
the air resound by their hoarse and shrill screaming, which 
is weird enough to frighten nervous folk after dusk when the 
birds happen to be wheeling in disturbed flocks around their 
almost inaccessible home. This rock and its generations of 
feathered inhabitants is the subject of a well-known legend 
known as " The Fairy and the Troubadour," by De Nimal 
in his " L6gendes de la Meuse," a curious and picturesquely 
written volume well worth reading. 

The story runs somewhat in this way : A well-born 
youth, whose father destined him for the Church, wished to 
become a poet. In the days of long ago poets more often 
sang or recited their poems than published them bound in 
cloth covers, and so this one became a wandering minstrel 
or troubadour, visiting in turn, as was the practice of these, 
the various castles scattered about in Belgium, the Rhine 
district, and other lands. At length he came to the banks 
of the Meuse, and one day near Rouillon he encountered a 
pretty sprite, with whom he fell promptly in love. They 
loved one another, and retired to pass their idyll in one of 
the caverns of the rock. Alas ! for the lovers. Though 
poets have so frequently been free in their fancies and fickle 
in their love-making, the fairy-love of the troubadour was 
not. She was obliged to leave her poet-lover and return, like 
others of her kind, to the gathering which was held each year 
to choose a queen. There she was charged publicly with her 
conduct of having espoused a mortal ; and as a punishment 
she was changed into the semblance of a hideous black crow 
with a voice, not like her own sweet " Lorelei " one, but 
hoarse and unmusical. Her lover underwent the same 
metamorphosis. 

They did not weep or repine, but saw each other in their 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 141 

new guise as beautiful as when they were troubadour and 
fairy ! Such is love's alchemy. 

The story goes on to say that they continued to inhabit 
the cavern in which they had passed their honeymoon, and 
in due time had many descendants, which one can see any 
day of the week wheeling in noisy flocks around the great 
crag. 

Quite close by are some interesting and picturesque 
castles and ruins. Notably those of Poilvache and Creve- 
Coeur. The former is merely a heap of ruins of a medieval 
fortress, which was destroyed by the French in 1554, 
standing upon a lofty eminence just after one passes Hun. 

The latter is situate near Bouvignes, just before one 
enters the outskirts of Dinant by way of a delightfully tree- 
shaded road. To Creve-Coeur attaches one of those semi- 
heroic legends of the days of chivalry, when the women of 
castles and fortresses were often not less brave than the 
men. Bouvignes was in those ancient times constantly 
engaged in feuds and disputes with Dinant. It is now but 
a small village; though one of the most interesting and 
venerable in this particular district. The legend runs that 
in 1554 Henry II. of France, then at war with Charles 
Quint, seized and sacked the place. Three beautiful women, 
left as the only survivors after the massacre of their 
husbands, with the rest of the garrison of Creve-Cceur, 
threw themselves, in sight of the besiegers, from the summit 
of one of the towers of the Chateau and were dashed to 
pieces on the rocks, rather than surrender to the insults and 
outrages of the conquerors, who were not in those days 
noted for tender treatment of prisoners, either male or 
female. The Chateau all along had been gallantly defended 
by Pierre Harroy, its captain, and the garrison greatly 
encouraged in the defence by these gallant ladies. The 
following lines, to be found in Alfred Nicholas' " Voyages 
et Adventures au Royaume de Belgique," describes the 
incident : 

" Pour ne point tomber vivantes 

Aux mains des durs assiegeants, 

Les trois dames bravement 

S'en vont sur le tour branlante 

Monter en blanc vetements 

Et par la main se tenant. 

Elles font une pri^re 

En levant au ciell es yeux, 



142 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Et puis d'un saut merveilleux, 
Quittant la tour meurtriere, 
Tombent dans I'air du bon Dieu 
Sur le piques et les pieux. 
Depuis ce trepas si digne 
Qui nous creve a tous la coeur, 
On appelle Crevecoeur 
Le vieux chateau de Bouvignes. 
Qu'il plaise au divin Seigneur 
Prendre leur ame en douceur." 

^ In pretty, quaint Bouvignes one comes across many 
traces of its ancient greatness in fragments of architecture, 
and here and there an ancient house. On the market-place 
is the Maison du Bailliage (or residence of the bailiwick) a 
fine sixteenth-century building, one of the most remarkable 
in the Meuse valley. It was in all probability built to 
replace the chateau destro5^ed during the famous siege of 
1554, and long served as a meeting-place for the bailiffs 
of the town. Quite close to this Maison du Bailliage is 
the thirteenth-century church reached by a stone stair- 
case. Unfortunately, the restorations which have from 
time to time been undertaken have been made in bad 
taste, and have almost entirely ruined the building. In 
the choir, however, are several interesting objects, in- 
cluding an altar lamp and lectern of brass beautifully 
worked. 

' Dinant is but a couple of kilometres distant, and is soon 
reached by the tree-environed road, elevated a considerable 
height above the river, which is distant only a hundred 
yards or so. The railway has now crossed the latter, and 
the road into Dinant runs beside it for some considerable 
distance. Opposite Bouvignes is the little river Leffe, and 
in the gorge, or narrow valley, through which it flows, are 
situated some extremely picturesque water-mills. A little 
way up the valley stands the ancient and famous Abbaye de 
Leffe, established in the middle of the twelfth century, and 
formerly occupied by the Premonstratensians. Within its 
walls in 1466 lodged on the first night of his arrival at 
Dinant Charles le Tem6raire. Since the times of the 
Revolution the Abbey has seen many vicissitudes, having 
been in turn glass-works, paper-mill, and brewery, in 
1903 returning to its original use as a home for the sons of 
St. Norbert. A huge chapel has replaced the ancient 
church, which was destroyed. On the slopes of the hill 




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NAMUR, DIN ANT, GIVET 143 

opposite are still to be seen the terraces formerly occupied 
by the vineyards for which the Abbey was noted. 

The first real view of Dinant breaks upon one most 
picturesquely through a gap in the trees and foliage which 
skirt the riverside the last mile or so of the road, which 
slopes gently down to the station-yard — at Dinant they do 
not apparently dignify this space with the name of Place de 
la Station — and seen at sundown this peep is indeed 
beautiful and charming. 

Dinant proper, now numbering about 8,000 inhabitants, 
and once of much strategic importance, lies on the right 
bank of the river, the houses, hotels, convent, few shops, 
and railway station on the left bank being considered a 
suburb, and known as St. Medard. 

The origin of the town is by many writers supposed to 
date from Roman times. The first name being Arche, 
the one by which it is now known having been given it 
much later. There are several theories regarding the name 
Dinant. That old and gossipy chronicler, Jean D'Outre- 
Meuse, gives the origin in a pretty legend, which runs as 
follows : Long ages ago, St. Materne, the apostle of the 
Ardennes, who was also Bishop of Tongres, came one day 
to the town whilst on an episcopal visitation or pilgrimage, 
and whilst walking in the streets came upon an idol set up, 
which the townsfolk called Nam. Pointing to the figure, he 
exclaimed : " Dis, or Die Nam, pourquoi te tiens tu ici " 
(literally, " Tell me. Nam, why thou art found or set up 
here "). The inhabitants, the chronicler goes on to say, not 
hearing the whole of the saint's remarks, only the first two 
words, called their town forthwith Dinant. Other writers 
are of the opinion that the name was derived from Diane, 
or Dione, and that the statue referred to was one of 
Diana. 

Dinant, viewed from across the water, has a strangely 
quaint and attenuated look. The huge limestone cliffs, 
crowned by trees, and with ferns and lichen beautifying 
their face, at the back of the thin rows of buildings, towering 
high above the picturesque roofs and chimney-stacks, create 
an impression upon the beholder of endeavouring to thrust 
the houses from a precarious footing into the jade-coloured 
river itself. The modern iron bridge, which replaced the 
ancient one of stone in 1870, handsome though it be, con- 



144 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

necting St. Medard with Dinant proper, somehow strikes 
one as being out of the picture. 

Dinant has seen many vicissitudes, and during the Middle 
Ages it was frequently attacked, several times by the Bur- 
gundians. In addition, it was apparently in constant feud 
with Bouvignes, then " a place of strength and renown, 
capable of putting not less than 15,000 fighting men into 
the field." In 1466 the Dinantais aroused the anger of 
Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, who marched against 
the town in company with his son, afterwards to become 
known as Charles the Bold. 

The quarrel between the Dinantais and the Duke of 
Burgundy arose from the fact that the Duke had ordered 
them to destroy and dismantle the fortress of Mont Orgueil, 
which they had built on the heigh ts above the cathedral in 
reply to the strong tower of Creve-Coeur, erected by their 
enemies, the inhabitants of Bouvignes. 

A few years later, hearing that the Burgundians had been 
severely defeated by the people of Liege, the Dinantais 
marched towards Bouvignes with an effigy of the Duke's 
son Charles, Count of Charolais, swinging between a 
gallows, " which they showed, with many insults, to their 
enemies of Bouvignes." 

Unfortunately for the Dinantais, they had been supplied 
with an inaccurate account of events. The Liegeois had 
been defeated and not victorious, and the Burgundians were 
at the time marching to attack Dinant and avenge the insult 
to their Duke's heir. The latter was in command of 30,000 
men. He took up his quarters at the fine Abbey of Leffe, 
and forthwith proceeded to invest Dinant, which he shortly 
afterwards captured. The place was sacked, only the 
priests, women, and children being spared and deported to 
Liege. And of the rest of the inhabitants, who at that date 
were said to have numbered upwards of 30,000, 800 were 
made prisoners, marched to Bouvignes, and there thrownv 
into the Meuse to drown. 

A Httle less than a century later, in 1554, Dinant was 
once more besieged, taken and plundered, this time by the 
French, under the Due le Nevers ; and in 1675 the same 
enemies were at the gates with the same end in view. 

In the Middle Ages the town was celebrated for its brass 
and copper ware, and the work of its dinandiers was famous 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 145 

throughout Europe. The town, several times burnt almost 
to the ground, rose, phoenix-like, from its ashes, but the 
famous industry was almost entirely destroyed when Dinant 
fell a prey to the Burgundians in 1466. In the cocques de 
Dinant, or the strange flat ginger-bread cakes which form so 
prominent a feature of the confectioners' and bakers' shops 
nowadays, one has surviving a representation of the repousse 
plaques and other utensils of brass and copper for which the 
town was anciently noted. In the fifteenth century, before 
its fall, Dinant, which was attached to the See of Liege, 
contained upwards of 30,000 inhabitants, possessed a dozen 
churches, seven abbeys, strong fortifications, town walls, 
and brass foundries, employing no less than 8,000 men. 
The Dinant of the past is unevocable, but the charming 
and picturesque town of the present, the objective of 
thousands of tourists during each summer season, has taken 
its place. 

Notre Dame, the principal church, with its almost 
mosque-like spire apparently out of the perpendicular, dates 
from the thirteenth century, and stands close against the 
rocky face of the citadel, upon the site of a much older 
building. It is particularly interesting, as it is one of the 
best specimens of Early Gothic architecture in Belgium, 
with a few traces of the Transition Period discernible. It 
has undergone of recent years a very complete restoration, 
which has been undertaken in a moderate, and, on the 
whole, intelligent, spirit. The building is not a large one, 
measuring only some 160 feet, with a width between the 
transepts varying from 65 to go feet. There are three naves 
without lateral chapels, the chief some 70 feet in height, the 
other two about 45 feet. The choir, restricted by the face 
of the rock, has been stunted of its normal development, 
and this has somewhat destroyed the proportion and 
general effect of the building. The baptistery on the right 
of the nave, with an ancient font, probably belonged to the 
Roman church which preceded the present building. The 
font dates at least as far back as the twelfth century. The 
large window in the side of the church facing the Place 
should be noted on account of its ornate mullions. Behind 
the high altar is a much more ancient one dedicated to 
Perpetuo, who was Bishop of Tongres in the sixth 
century. 
10 



146 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

In addition to the tower and spire, to which we have 
already called attention as forming so distinctive a feature 
of the town, the very beautiful south door, dating from the 
latter half of the thirteenth century, will attract the eye of 
artist and student alike. Each of the arches has four 
tabernacles in two rows, giving sixteen spaces for statuary, 
of which, however, little remains, and that sorely mutilated. 
The tympanum is of unusual charm, and it is filled by five 
arches, diminishing in width from the centre, with each 
compartment cusped and surmounted by a straight-sided 
canopy. The space between these canopies and the head 
of the arch is richly carved. The outer arch of all is most 
elegantly designed, and in the space formed by it and the 
surmounting gable one finds three niches, in the central 
one of which there is a greatly mutilated group, apparently 
representing the coronation of the Virgin. 

Quite close to the church is the stone staircase of 408 
steps leading up to the citadel, condemned as out of date 
in 1853, now the property of a private owner. It is shown 
to visitors for a fee of fifty centimes, and there is a museum 
attached containing a number of relics of the Franco- 
Prussian War of 1870, including some interesting objects 
from Sedan. The views of the valley of the Meuse and of 
the picturesque old town, obtained from the citadel walls 
and at various points of the road up, more especially from 
the footpath which starts by way of the Rue St. Jacques, 
well repay the climber. 

The Jardin de Montfat, which word is a corruption of 
Montfort, the name given to a tower formerly standing on 
one of the rocks near by, is also picturesque, with fine 
views. It is situated quite close to the Palais de Justice, 
and contains a grotto, or cavern, anciently believed to be 
the abiding place of a sibyl, or prophetic sprite, who, so the 
story goes, was in the Middle Ages consulted by people from 
far and wide. Nowadays there is no sprite, nor, so far as 
we discovered, even a fortune-teller ; and therein the Dinan- 
tais show lack of enterprise, for the spot is an ideal one for 
romance and the profitable prosecution of so mysterious a 
calling. 

The old Hotel de Ville, abutting upon the river, and 
placed about midway down the main street, is a curiously con- 
structed building, dating from the seventeen and eighteenth 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 147 

centuries, and originally used as a lodging-place for ecclesi- 
astics of the Principality on their visits to Dinant. It 
contains a few pictures of that mad genius, Anton Joseph 
Wiertz, a native of the town, who enjoyed in the early years 
of his artistic career an astonishing vogue. He possessed 
great natural talent, and at first appears to have been a 
close student of the works of Rubens and Michael Angelo in 
Rome. Ultimately he became an apostle of strange art 
conceits, somewhat of the school of Goya ; ultimately 
entirely losing his mental balance and producing mere 
artistic nightmares, characterized by eccentricity of idea 
and great mechanical dexterity of execution. 

Beyond its quaintness and charm of situation there is 
little else to detain one in Dinant, though an amusing even- 
ing can be spent at the little Casino, which provides a 
concert, the ever-popular cinema, and a pleasant garden. 
On the evening we spent there play was going on recalling 
in a measure the days of the fine Kursaal, which was closed 
when the heavy tax on gambling establishments was imposed 
a few years ago. The element of chance, which appeals 
to the Continental holiday-maker so strongly, was pro- 
vided by the running in a groove up and down a table of a 
small lead or iron figure of a soldier, operated by a lever. 
At the side of the figure was a raised ridge divided into 
sections, painted different colours, and labelled : La Russie, 
La Belgique, La France, L'Angleterre, La Germanie, etc. 
The figure carried a flexible staff in its hand, which ran over 
the notches on top of the groove, and of course as the 
impetus given by the spring was exhausted, it eventually 
stopped dead with the staff fixed in one or other of the many 
notches opposite one of the names of the countries. At each 
side of the groove on the table the green cloth was divided 
up into squares, named after the countries represented, and 
upon La France, L'Angleterre, La Russie, La Belgique, 
etc., the gamblers placed their stakes. The notches in the 
centre groove, in which the staff of the little figure lodged, 
were of different values, giving a return of the stake plus its 
value, twice the value, three times the value, and so on. 
Quite considerable sums of money were lost and won at this 
game, which was almost as exciting as petit chevaux. Any 
player was allowed to operate the lever which started the 
little soldier or despatch-runner on his journey up and down 



148 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the table, but was then obliged to place stakes upon the 
table. 

It was obvious that " old hands," and there were several 
present, both men and women, from long study of the pull 
of the lever controlling the apparatus and spring which 
operated the figure, were able to calculate with some con- 
siderable degree of accuracy the point or country against 
which the little runner would eventually stop, and stake 
their money accordingly. One man in particular who started 
the figure fully a score of times in succession, only made 
three errors of judgment, and won some £iz or £\^. Quite 
a young girl was equally successful, though she did not play 
with the coolness of the man. Naturally enough, these suc- 
cesses tempted many tyros to try their luck, which they did 
usually with splendid results — for the Casino Company. 
Although the stakes were limited to five francs for the 
maximum, the minimum being a franc, a very large amount 
of money changed hands during the evening. 

The road to Givet can be either by the right or the left 
bank. The left is the more direct, and that, we fancy, most 
usually taken. But before quitting Dinant, however, it is 
well worth while to do as we did, and ride or walk along the 
Rue Grand, and through the suburb of Les Rivages to 
La Roche a Bayard. This extraordinary and impressive 
rock, which was pierced in 1698 to allow of the passage of 
the baggage train of the French army — containing plunder 
which occupied 1,600 vehicles, that had been requisitioned 
in the district — is more than 100 feet in height, and 35 to 
50 feet wide at its base. It was here that the horse of the 
" Quatre Fils d'Aymon," named Bayard, when pursued by 
Charlemagne, after having cleared the bottom of the Leffe, 
jumped from the top of the heights into the Meuse. The 
rock, so the legend states, bore the marks of the horse's 
shoes in the stone. It is said that after this wonderful feat, 
and having no horse which could emulate it, Charlemagne 
gave up the pursuit, and, smarting from his discomfiture, 
declared that Bayard was nothing but the devil in disguise. 
An old chronicler goes on to say : " As everyone knows that 
whether he be emperor or peasant, he is likely to be tricked 
by so wily a foe as the devil, Charlemagne's honour was 
preserved." It is also added that the Emperor and the 
army who had engaged in the pursuit were very fatigued and 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 149 

thirsty, and the Emperor, calling to mind the history of the 
river, planted his spear in the soil and fell on his knees, sup- 
plicating the Almighty to cause a well to spring forth. 
Almost immediately a spring arose at the spot, which has 
never dried up, and is known as the fountain of Charlemagne. 

The direct road from Dinant along the left bank of the 
Meuse is an excellent one, with the exception of a mile or 
two between Hastiere-par-dela and Hermeton, and follows 
the river and railway very closely. Anseremme, the resort 
of artists, with its ancient bridge and a viaduct of the 
railway up the Valley of the Lesse to Rochefort, on the 
opposite side of the Meuse, is the first place of importance 
to be passed, and as one does so the old legend of an Abbot 
of St. Hubert — who caused a regiment of varlets in medieval 
times to stay up o' nights beating the surface of the river so 
as to drive away the frogs who disturbed his rest by their 
croaking — comes to mind. The frogs, we fancy, must have 
been more numerous then than nowadays. 

But a few kilometres further on and one comes upon the 
beautiful Chateau Freyer, with its well-kept and delightful 
pleasaunces laid out by Le Notre, it is said, on the model of 
those at Versailles. It stands close to the river bank, and 
the gardens are placed on the well-wooded slopes of the 
environing hills. The chateau is an excellent example of 
seventeenth-century domestic architecture, and was built in 
1637 by the then head of the Beaufort-Spontin family, whose 
descendants still inhabit it. The building is one of historic 
interest from the fact that it was here that the delegates of 
Louis XIV. and Charles 11. of Spain signed the treaty of 
peace known as the Treaty of Freyer, on which occasion we 
are told coffee was for the first time served ceremoniously in 
Belgium. 

In Victor Hugo's volume " Le Rhin," he writes of Freyer 
as a little cottage or a little cake-like structure, and as being 
like a clock of the time of Louis XV., " with its Liliputian 
ponds, and little pompadour garden, embracing all the 
* volutes,' all the fantasticness, all the grimaces of a coup 
d'ceil.'" How far Hugo is to be accepted as a critic, those who 
have seen the huge four-square chateau with its wide stretch 
of roof, broken here and there by dormers, and corner 
turrets, and its look of solidity, will best be able to judge. 
Possibly he had never seen it. Of it Jean d'Ardenne has 



I50 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

written, " Nothing could be more charming." And M. Paul 
Huysman says of Freyer : " It is a reincarnation infinitely 
gracious and entirely unexpected of the eighteenth century, 
and coquettish and adorned is this elegant park of Freyer. 
One almost expects to see some beribboned shepherds or 
some fair marquise with powdered hair flitting amongst its 
thickets." 

On the opposite bank of the river in place of pleasant 
gardens and wooded thickets one has the abrupt contrast of 
huge rocks, bare in places, and in others covered with 
patches of verdure. 

The scenery from Freyer to Waulsort increases in charm 
and grandeur. One comes suddenly upon a fine chateau, 
which is situated, as is that of Freyer, close to the road near 
a beautiful bend of the river. Once a dependence of the 
celebrated Benedictine abbey, this beautiful seat of the 
Comte de Laubespin, with its environment of trees and 
lofty poplars, has a grand square courtyard and massive 
fagade. The abbey itself was destroyed by the desperadoes 
of the famous De Lecolle, Mayor of Givet, at the time of 
the French Revolution, in the name of the grand principles 
of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity ! The beautiful grounds, 
unfortunately, have now been bisected by the railway line. 

On the hill above the village of Waulsort, which is now 
the resort of many tourists and rapidly acquiring a vogue as 
a residential resort for Belgians retired from business, 
whose modern and in many cases somewhat pretentious 
chateaux, are to be seen dotted about on the hillsides, are 
the ruins of the ancient castle and fortress of Thierry, just 
below which is the famous Rocher du Chien. The ruins are 
more extensive than one would judge when viewing them 
from the road. The chateau, which dates from the four- 
teenth century, was once the stronghold of two robber 
knights, the sons of one Jacques de Boulan, whose depreda- 
tions and crimes are enshrined in romance and local history. 
They not only terrorized the neighbourhood, and possessed 
a liking for carrying off good-looking maidens, but for a 
considerable period appear to have made the highway from 
France along the valley of the Meuse through the Ardennes 
dangerous for all travellers save those of the humblest rank, 
or those who journeyed in sufficient force or were strong 
enough to resist their attack. The castle was eventually 



NAMUR, DINANT, GIVET 151 

besieged and destroyed by the enraged Dinantais ; but was 
afterwards rebuilt, passing into the possession of the 
Brandenburgs, and then into that of the Beaufort-Spontin 
family, who may almost be said to have a monopoly of the 
estates and castles of this district. 

As one leaves Waulsort behind and advances towards the 
three Hastiere villages, the valley contracts, and the scenery 
becomes wilder and more impressive. At the end of the 
narrow Ranle gorge a strangely-tinted rock stands out chal- 
lenging notice, and a short distance further on one catches 
a ghmpse of the white-walled chapel of St. Walhere. There 
is a story connected with this which runs as follows : A 
Vicar of Hastiere, in ancient times, who happened to be the 
nephew of the pious Dean Walhere of Florennes, caused the 
latter great sorrow by the irregularity and immorality of his 
life. So much so, indeed, did he offend that, even in days 
not noted for great strictness in those matters, it was found 
necessary to severely reprimand the sinner. One day, the 
Dean, wishing to cross the Meuse from Hastiere to the 
other side, entered a boat in which the Vicar was acting 
for the time as ferryman. Somewhat unwisety (knowing 
the disposition of his nephew), the Dean proceeded to 
exhort and admonish him. The latter, after listening for a 
few minutes to his relative with ill-disguised impatience and 
annoyance, smote the Dean on the head with the oar, and 
then cast his body into the river. The body, however, did 
not sink, as might have been expected, but kept on the sur- 
face, and drifted ashore just at the spot where the fountain 
of St. Walhere still bubbles forth. Next day, we are told, the 
body was claimed by the men of Bouvignes, who wished to 
give it honoured burial. But when the horses were attached 
to the cart in which the dead had been laid, the animals 
refused to move. At length, at the behest of a widow known 
for her piety, two young heifers were obtained and hitched 
to the cart, which was then drawn up the hillside to Bonair, 
where a chapel now stands dedicated to the saint, who is 
supposed (by the peasants) to especially look after the 
interests of sick cattle. 

The two pleasantly situated villages of Hastiere-Lavaux 
and Hastiere-par-dela, which are surrounded by delightful 
scenery, are soon reached. They stand on either bank of 
the Meuse, and are connected by a three-span iron bridge. 



152 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Although Hastiere-Lavaux, through which one passes to 
Givet, is the more important village, and by far the larger, 
all interested in fine churches should cross the bridge and 
visit Hastiere-par-dela, where stands one of the finest 
Romanesque churches in the valley of the Meuse. It was 
formerly attached to an ancient priory dating from the 
eleventh century. 

Hermeton-sur- Meuse is reached by a slight divergence 
from the main road, which forks soon after leaving Hastiere 
and can afterwards be regained a little distance the other 
side of Hermeton, and the little place is well worth a pass- 
ing visit. The valley of Hermeton, of which one gets a 
glimpse, is one of the most delightful in the district. About 
two miles after regaining the main road, we were stopped at 
the douane on the French frontier, which is at Heer-Agi- 
mont station on the railway. The proceedings are not very 
formidable for cyclists with a minimum of luggage, and 
therefore a minimum of ** cover" in which to smuggle any- 
thing, and we were soon again on our way. 

At length Givet comes in sight, divided into two, as is 
Dinant, by the Meuse ; Givet St. Hilaire, lying on the left 
bank at the foot of the steep hill crowned by the fort of 
Charlemont, whilst Givet Notre Dame is situated on the 
opposite bank. 

Givet is a brisk town of some 8,000 inhabitants, strongly 
fortified and picturesque, but possessing no buildings of any 
great interest or antiquity. The commercial, official, and 
residential portion of the city is that on the left bank ; the 
industrial and manufacturing on the right. 

The curious-looking church of St. Hilaire, built by the 
famous military engineer, Vauban, towards the end of the 
seventeenth century, has been immortalized by Victor Hugo 
in his " Letters." His description of the building, if not 
particularly flattering, is amusing, illuminating, and fairly 
accurate. Of it he writes : ** The architect has taken the 
cap of a priest or lawyer, and on this square cap has erected 
a salad-bowl upside down ; on the back of this, used as a 
platform, he has placed a sugar-basin ; on this sugar-basin 
a bottle, with a sun-fish attached to the neck of the bottle 
by the lower vertical fin ; and, finally, on the sun-fish a cock 
is spitted." 

We found nothing much more of interest in Givet save 



NAMUR, DIN ANT, GIVET 153 

the monument to the composer Mehul, who wrote the 
famous " Chant du Depart," and a rather handsome foun- 
tain in the rococo style. 

Less than fifty miles to the south-east of Givet lies Sedan 
of tragic memories. The way to that sad spot, which wit- 
nessed forty years ago the debacle of French hopes, is a 
pleasant one, but it lies outside the scope of the present 
volume. 



CHAPTER VII 

BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 

BRUSSELS, which occupies an almost central position 
in Belgium, is pleasantly situated on the Senne, a 
tributary of the Dyle, much as is Paris upon the 
Seine. Several quarters of the city are at a considerable 
height above sea-level. The history of Brussels, like that of 
many another city of Northern Europe, is obscured by those 
mists of conflicting traditions and contradictory records 
which make the work of the historian so laborious and 
intricate. Even the origin of the name itself is uncertain, 
some authorities inclining to the belief that it was derived 
from the two words broek, or bruk, a marsh, and sekf or set, a 
dwelling or manor — literally, a manor in the marsh. But 
be this as it may, we know that in those dim and mysterious 
bygone ages when, out of the warring of contending 
barbarous and semi-savage tribes, was gradually evolved the 
institutions and towns which ultimately took concrete form 
in the Netherlands, Brussels was gradually coming into 
being — a town of the Salic Francs, who for the greater 
part were the founders of the cities of the Province of 
Brabant, of which Brussels is the chief. 

Of the great men and heroes whose lives were connected 
more or less intimately with the foundation of the city, we 
know very little. Some, indeed, are mere names handed 
down to us by tradition ; others figure with a little more 
detail and clearness in the writings of the chroniclers of 
those early times. 

One of the most treasured in the memories of the 
medieval inhabitants, and one which has a definite place 
amongst the saints and heroes of those far-distant days, is 
that of St. Hubert, the great hunter Bishop of Liege, from 

154 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 155 

about 707 to 727. He dwelt, we are told, in " a strong castle 
in the Forest of Soignes hard by Brussels, and when hunting 
there one day was confronted by a white stag, which bore 
gleaming between its horns a cross, emitting rays of light." 
This so impressed Hubert that he was converted to the 
Christian faith, and became fruitful in good works, so that 
by his ceaseless preaching and efforts, the whole of the 
inhabitants of Brabant at last became converted. The 
peasants who dwell in the forest of Soignes, to this day 
believe that it is under St. Hubert's especial protection ; 
and some even assert that their forbears have seen the 
white stag, with the flashing emblem of the cross, in the 
more secluded dells and boscages. There is now, however, 
no trace remaining of Hubert's dwelling, but tradition 
asserts that in the royal park of Tervueren, the chapel known 
as St. Hubert's marks its site, and the curious may care to 
know that in the parish church of the village (which is a 
famous resort of artists) hangs an ancient hunting-horn of 
ivory said to have belonged to the saint. 

Aldnilek the Fierce, ancestor of the great Charlemagne, 
Rombold, and Bavon, are little more than names — first of 
robber chiefs, or marauders, and then of saints, as some 
early missionary or other brought conversion from the evil 
of their ways to them. All are more or less connected with 
the district of which Brussels forms the centre. 

The foundation of the city is generally supposed to have 
taken place in the sixth century, and the founder is by 
tradition supposed to have been St. Gery, Bishop of 
Cambrai, by many considered the St. Augustine of Belgium. 
It was on an island in the Senne, amid what must then 
have been extensive marshes, that the first dwellings were 
built. But from this time onward records are scanty con- 
cerning this village, and it is not until the tenth century 
that one finds an authentic mention of it. From a docu- 
ment of the reign of Otho the Great one learns that there 
was a church here. Seldom, indeed, in ancient times, was 
a group of houses placed at any spot without the accom- 
paniment of a church, the symbol of some degree of law, 
order, and protection of the weak in those troublous times. 
And in the year 977, Duke Charles of Lorraine selected the 
village or townlet as his place of official residence, and 
shortly afterwards built a chateau on St. Gary's island. 



156 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The spot was not an unsuitable one, for the Senne, by its 
many windings and frequent floods, had in course of the 
centuries cut in the soft soil many marshy islets, which offered 
to settlers and wandering tribes alike good protection from 
wild beasts as well as from their human enemies. 

In course of time the village St. Gery had founded grew 
into a town, and the inhabitants, after many struggles with 
the periodical floods to which the Senne was subject, 
commenced to build upon the higher land, a little distance 
from the banks of the river, which was also more healthy. 

In the early part of the eleventh century the powerful 
Counts of Louvain, who had by then become the over- 
lords of the country, and who afterwards, as we know, 
assumed the style or title of Dukes of Brabant, built a castle 
upon the height which commanded the valley of the Senne 
and the approach by water from the sea. It was under 
Duke Balderic that the first walled enclosure appears to 
have been built (though there is some evidence of a wall 
connecting the castle with the nucleus of the lower town at 
a somewhat earlier period than the beginning of the eleventh 
century), which reached a little beyond the site of the 
Church of St. Gudule, and, continuing to the Rue d'Assaut, 
afterwards turned towards the present Boulevard Anspach, 
and climbed up the site of the Rue des Alexiens by the 
Rue d'Or, ultimately finishing a little below the site of the 
present Rue Royale. 

This wall was ultimately (about 1357) replaced by another 
having seven gates, and this was much strengthened during 
the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and till the 
nineteenth century enclosed Brussels proper. 

Towards the middle of the eleventh century Henry III. 
built himself a " fine strong castle of great size and mag- 
nificence" on the site now occupied by the Place Royal and 
Royal Palace. Brussels from this period onward until the 
eighteenth century was usually the residence of the 
Sovereigns and of the Governors, who constantly changed 
with the varying fortunes of Brabant and the Netherlands. 

The city has no very stirring or romantic history from 
the twelfth till the fourteenth century. The town continued 
to grow, with fluctuations caused by fire, flood, and pesti- 
lence, and by the commencement of the fourteenth century 
had become an important, and even prosperous place. 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 157 

The fourteenth century, however, saw some stirring 
events during the reign of Duke Wencelas. Both in Lou- 
vain, the then capital of Brabant, and in Brussels, there 
was great discontent and animosity between the patricians 
and the plebeian classes. Neither were strong enough to 
openly attack one another, but there was a smouldering 
hostihty, which it seems Duke Wencelas was unable to 
combat. On August 17, 1356, Louis de Maele, Count of 
Flanders, who had received encouragement from Wencelas' 
discontented patricians to invade Brabant, succeeded in 
defeating the Duke at Scheut, near Anderlecht, and in 
putting him to flight. After the battle, Louis entered 
Brussels almost without opposition, and it would appear 
that his claim to the Duchy of Brabant was speedily 
acknowledged by every town of any importance. The dis- 
like of the nobles to Wencelas arose from his known 
sympathies with the lower classes. Their welcome to 
Louis de Maele arose from the fact that they knew him for 
a strong ruler and one who favoured the aristocracy. 

Count Louis was not destined, however, to long enjoy his 
ill-gotten possession, for, as is so often the case in crises both 
national as well as municipal, the need produced the man. 
One Everard T'Serclaes, or Everard Nicholson in English, 
born in 1315, who was a patriot, a patrician, and a wealthy 
man, high in authority, and in the favour of the fugitive 
Duke Wencelas, took up the people's cause. He was, 
above all, a citizen of great integrity, and by the time that 
Wencelas had gathered a new force together at Maastricht, 
T'Serclaes had taken matters into his own hands, and had 
driven out Louis de Maele and his Flemings from Brussels. 
The English victory over the forces of the French King John 
at Poitiers had made such a scheme as that of T'Serclaes 
possible, for Louis de Maele's fortunes were bound up 
with those of France, and it was upon the French King 
that he had to rely to aid him to keep what he had taken. 

On the dark and wet night of October 29, 1356, T'Ser- 
claes, who had been for some time exiled at Maastricht, 
but had kept in touch with his companions in Brussels who 
were favourable to the cause of Duke Wencelas, came back 
to the city under cover of the Forest of Soignes. He made 
for a spot near his own home, where there happened to be 
neither moat, nor was the rampart high. No watch appears 



158 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

to have been kept, and T'Serclaes speedily climbed over the 
wall. There was no one stirring in the streets or by-lanes 
of the city ; all was still, save for the soughing of the high 
wind and the splashing of the raindrops in the pools which 
lay on the unpaved road, or where the stone flags had been 
worn by many feet. But T'Serclaes' plans had been made 
beforehand with great care and daring. He knew he could 
count upon more than a mere handful of supporters, and 
relied upon the inestimable advantage of a night-surprise of 
the Flemings and their patrician aiders and abettors, who 
were sleeping unsuspectingly in their beds. 

Within an hour of T'Serclaes' climbing over the wall of 
the city, at an agreed signal the watchword and battle-cry 
rang out in the deathly stillness of the night : *' Brabant for 
the great Duke Wencelas !" and men came running to join 
T'Serclaes at the rallying-point agreed upon. Soon the 
number gathered thus together was considerable, and they 
swept on, with T'Serclaes at their head, into the Market 
Place. The golden lion standard of Brabant soon replaced 
that of the black lion of Flanders ; and, hearing the accla- 
mations of the crowd cheering on T'Serclaes, the Flemish 
guard at length turned out to see what the disturbance was 
about. In the streets they found a cursing, furious mob 
(largely composed, let it be explained, of the rougher ele- 
ments among the citizens, who had been drawn into the 
adventure by reason of their inherent love of turbulence, 
and the fact that they had everything to gain and not much 
to lose), and, only half-aroused from their interrupted 
slumbers, they were by no means fitted to comprehend the 
situation clearly. Seized with a panic, after a feeble 
attempt at contending with the forces of T'Serclaes, they 
fled, pursued by their fierce and relentless foes. So far as 
history goes, not one of the Flemish garrison escaped. 
Those who were not at once killed in their flight jumped off 
the high walls, fell into the canals or moat and were 
drowned, or were hunted out of their hiding-places at dawn 
and put to the sword. By sunrise Brussels was once more 
in the hands of Everard T'Serclaes and of the friends of 
Duke Wencelas, and within a week all the towns in the 
Duchy, with the one exception of Malines, had followed the 
example of Brussels, and the Flemish occupation of 
Brabant came to a sudden and ignominious end. 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 159 

T'Serclaes, who had played so great a part in this 
brilliant achievement, was knighted, and managed for a long 
period to retain the confidence of the simple burghers as 
well as the tacit, if not active, approval of the patrician 
element. He succeeded ultimately, indeed, in obtaining 
the approval and goodwill of the very men — the patricians 
— against whose supposed interests he had successfully 
fought. He was chosen premier alderman of the city in 
1365, and ten years later, when drastic reforms had been 
taken to prevent corruption, and when the magistracy 
became elective, he was again chosen. In the same year he 
represented the patricians of his native town in the National 
Assembly at Braine-l'Alleud, and was two years later, and 
again in 1382, elected premier alderman. 

The citizens who had helped Duke Wencelas to regain 
his Duchy also had their reward, in having granted to them 
muncipal representation. The trading companies or guilds 
were granted by charter an equal share in the government 
of Brussels. History tells us however, that this particular 
charter was speedily revoked by Wencelas, why, is wrapt in 
mystery. 

T'Serclaes, the idol of the people, came in the end by a 
violent death. A dispute arose regarding the sale of a strip 
of land by the widowed Duchess Jeanne, who was im- 
pecunious, to one Sweder, a baron who had domains near 
Brussels. The Bruxellois were furious that any land over 
which the city held jurisdiction should be taken from them. 
T'Serclaes was chosen to defeat Sweder's proposal by an 
appeal to the Duchess. In this he succeeded, and thereby 
made a deadly enemy of the ambitious Sweder, who decided 
on his removal. So it came about that on the evening of 
March 26, when T'Serclaes, who had been on a visit to 
Lennick, a village quite close to the castle of Gaesbeke, 
where Sweder dwelt, was returning unaccompanied on his 
mule to Brussels he was set upon by two men, who had 
been hiding in wait for him behind a hedge. They pulled 
him from his mule, mutilated him atrociously — tearing out 
his tongue, cutting off his right foot, and slashing his body 
with their daggers or swords — and left him by the wayside. 
He was found by some peasants and carried to Brussels, 
where he died ten days later from his terrible wounds. He 
lies buried in the ancient church at Ternath, and on each 



i6o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

anniversary of his death a Requiem Mass is sung for the 
repose of the soul of him they called "the Saviour of 
Brussels." 

Although the citizens of Brussels, some considerable 
number of the patricians, and the Duchess Jeanne set out 
to revenge T'Serclaes, and besieged Sweder's castle of 
Gaesbeke, they could not take it. At length Sweder's wife, 
Anne of Linange, made terms with the besiegers ; oifering 
to yield up the castle and let what might come to it, pro- 
vided her life and those of its inhabitants, including the 
murderers of T'Serclaes — William of Cleves, a natural son 
of Sweder; and his chief steward, Melis Uytten-Enge — were 
spared. These terms were accepted by the besiegers, who 
just then were fearful of attack upon Brabant by Henry 
of Gelderland. Thus justice was in a measure defeated. 
The castle was burned, but Sweder and his wife were less 
than a year later restored to their possessions. 

This story of T'Serclaes, stirring as it is, is but one of 
the many romantic incidents connected with the city of 
Brussels in the Middle Ages. One might fill a book with 
the others, but this one must suffice us as typical of the law- 
less times, and rapid changes of government and supremacy 
which marked that period when might was right, and he 
who could best take best held. 

After Wencelas had regained his Duchy and Brussels, he 
commenced the ramparts which are represented as regards 
general area by the Boulevards of to-day. In consequence 
the history of the city for a considerable period was the 
quieter for the added security of stronger walls. 

The great commercial and material prosperity of the 
place dates from the commencement of the rule of the 
House of Burgundy. It was then, in the fifteenth century, 
that the most beautiful of its many fine buildings were 
erected. The Church of St. Michael and St. Gudule has 
its great nave and towers dating from this period ; the 
Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame du Sablon, the Nassau Palace, 
the Palace of the Dukes of Brabant, and many other buildings 
were commenced then. Manufactures and commerce com- 
menced to flourish, whilst the liberties of the municipality 
were extended considerably. 

From now onward, indeed, Brussels was commonly es- 
teemed the capital of the Belgian provinces, notwithstanding 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT i6i 

the importance both of Antwerp and Ghent. About this 
time two parties came prominently into being, known by 
the somewhat clumsy titles of the " Lineages " and the 
" Nations." Otherwise, the Aristocracy and the Democracy. 
These during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were 
constantly at variance in their endeavours to assume control 
of municipal affairs, the people frequently taking up arms 
as a protest against the exercise of privileges by the patrician 
famiHes. But by degrees the Guilds gained a great im- 
portance, as they increased in numbers and wealth with the 
industrial and commercial prosperity of the city. 

The whole development of the municipal form of govern- 
ment, which was republican in sentiment if not in actual 
practice, was brought about by the struggles between two 
contending parties for the maintenance of municipal liberty, 
the imposition of taxes, and the checking of the privileges of 
the rich. Every now and again in reading the history of the 
Netherlands of this period, and of the various Duchies and 
Countships which comprised the greater area, one finds 
Sovereigns, Dukes, and Counts humbling themselves to 
their freedom-loving citizens when in need of hard cash to 
carry on their little wars, or to engage in the adventurous 
undertakings of greater sovereigns who were their suzerains, 
only when the immediate need for funds was past to revoke 
the charters granted, and take back some privilege which 
the burghers had bought. 

It was undoubtedly under the rule of Charles V. that 
Brussels reached its zenith of ancient prosperity. Then, with 
the era of Philip IL of Spain, came a long period of blood- 
shed, persecution, and misery. The religious disputes and 
troubles afflicting the Netherlands had their effect upon the 
life, prosperity, and happiness of the Bruxellois. The 
whole country was running with blood, and ruin stalked 
through the land. But during this tragic period of Nether- 
lands' history Brussels saw several glorious events, and did 
as a city more than one noble deed. It was in Brussels 
that the compromise of the nobles took place, after which 
those who were rebelling against the cruelties of the 
Inquisition were given the name of " Gueux," which had 
been bestowed upon them contemptuously by the Comte de 
Barlaimont. 

The Gueux, or " Beggars," consisted of about 300 

II 



1 62 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Protestant deputies of the Low Countries, who, headed by 
Henri de Brederode and Louis of Nassau, on April 5, 1566, 
petitioned Margaret of Parma, the then governor of the 
Low Countries, to abolish the Inquisition. Failing in this, 
the deputies at once assumed the sobriquet that had been 
bestowed upon them contemptuously as an honourable 
distinction, and commenced an organized resistance. 

It was Brussels which led the revolt against the most 
bloodthirsty of the rulers sent to the Netherlands by Spain, 
the Duke of Alva, and successfully resisted the imposition 
of the notorious " vingtieme denier " tax which it was 
sought to impose upon it. A tax which led ultimately to 
the revolt of the whole of the Belgian provinces. 

The Brussels citizens of those days were born and bold 
fighters, and they resisted the great Alexander Farnese for 
five long years. The struggle was carried on with varying 
fortunes, but always with great courage and patriotism. 

But ultimately weakness developed from within. The 
Iconoclasts — by which title some of the followers of the 
original Gueux became known — committed great excesses, 
which were not alone confined to the destruction of portions 
of the churches, throughout the country now known as 
Belgium, in the throwing down of images, and the spolia- 
tion of altars and other church furniture, but also led to the 
damage of public buildings and destruction of works of art. 
Then followed the division of the Walloon party, which 
separated themselves from the *' League," or Royalist, 
faction numbering the principal families of the nobility. 
All of these things served to bring about the subjection 
once more of the country to the Spanish yoke, and finally 
to the yielding up of Brussels in 1585. 

Brussels had once more fallen upon evil times. Perse- 
cutions again decimated many families of the citizens, 
skilled artisans were driven abroad, chiefly to England, and 
though, under the rule of Albert and Isabella, things were 
less unsettled and persecution less severe, during the 
feeble reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II. matters became 
worse from the merchants' point of view, and the continual 
wars with France had their effect upon the trade and 
commercial prosperity of Brussels as of other Belgian cities. 

At the end of the seventeenth century, in 1695, whilst 
Louis XIV. was on the French throne, the city was nearly 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 163 

destroyed by the inexcusable and useless bombardment to 
which the French, under the Marshal Villeroi, subjected it. 
It was set on fire in many places, and only the most 
strenuous efforts of the citizens saved it from total de- 
struction. How great was the damage done can only be 
realized by comparison of the ancient buildings existing in 
the city a few years after with those just prior to the 
bombardment. This can be done by means of old maps, 
plans, and engravings. 

But the Bruxellois did not waste much time in lament 
over their battered city. They set to work with commend- 
able promptitude to rebuild, and in a measure reconstruct 
the ruined and damaged buildings. In less than five years, 
we are told, scarcely a trace of the bombardment remained, 
although, of course, the burned and wrecked buildings were 
not many of them yet replaced. 

Unfortunately for the progress of the city, the seven- 
teenth century closed in anarchy and war. There was 
trouble with France and with Holland (from which latter 
the Belgian provinces, chiefly on account of the difference in 
religion, wished to separate), and the end only came to the 
struggle by the assigning of Belgium, as we now know it, 
to Austria by the Peace of Ryswick on September 20, 1697. 

The Governor appointed, the Marquis de Prie, was a 
Duke of Alva in little. He attempted to trample out all 
desire upon the part of the citizens of Brussels to exercise 
and retain their privileges, and to resist any encroachment 
upon the power to govern themselves, which they had won 
at such cost during the passage of the centuries. Once 
more the Bruxellois rebelled, and a simple chairmaker, 
named Anneessens, led a revolt, but paid with his life for his 
temerity. 

Maria Theresa, through her Stadtholder, Duke Charles of 
Lorraine, for a period of thirty-six years, from 1744-80, with 
a short break in the continuity, introduced a much milder 
and more beneficent rule. Duke Charles soon became 
popular, as he was a ruler after the citizen's own hearts, 
strong without arrogance or cruelty, fatherly in his relations 
with the good people of Brussels, and earnest in his en- 
deavour to reorganize the public services and to foster 
commerce. The government of the Duke was, however, 
brought to an unfortunate end by the surrender of the city 



1 64 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

to the French under Maurice de Saxe, on February 28, 
1746. A surrender which was disgraceful and almost incom- 
prehensible, as the Allies (the Austrians, English, and 
Dutch) struck not a blow in defence of the city. The 
French occupation lasted until the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 
on October 7, 1748, when the city reverted again to Austria. 

The time of peace which followed may be said to have 
constituted one of the happiest and most prosperous 
periods of the city's history. Both arts and commerce again 
flourished, and industries increased. New buildings were 
erected, new quarters laid out, fine streets constructed. But 
the spirit of the Corporations or Guilds became weakened, 
and even the " Serments," or bodies of citizen soldiers, 
which consisted of the "Grand Serment" of cross-bowmen, 
the '* Petit Serment " of cross-bowmen, the arquebusiers, 
the archers, and lastly, the swordsmen or pikemen, lost 
much of their power and gradually became disorganized. 
Possibly, too, because of long years of peace, the Bruxellois 
lost the proud spirit of independence that formerly had 
caused them so often to be thorns in the sides of rulers who 
attempted to curtail their privileges. 

The want of tact and imprudence of Joseph II., however, 
served to arouse the old spirit of revolt in the Bruxellois and 
Belgians generally, with a result that there was a rising, 
known as the Brabantine Revolution, started and con- 
trolled by the lawyers Henri Van der Noot, Francois Vonck, 
and Van Eupen, Grand Plenipotentiary. The result was 
the ultimate defeat of Joseph's party and supporters. How- 
ever, the tables were turned within a year owing to internal 
dissensions amongst the *' National " party, and the Austrians 
again took possession. 

Belgium, then, for a period of many years became the 
shuttlecock of French and Austrian pretensions. It was 
taken by both nations in turn ; and then, after the Battle of 
Fleurus on June 26, 1794, the Austrians were driven out for 
ever, and the French once more becoming possessors, 
Brussels, the Capital of the Low Countries, was made the 
chief town of the department of the Dyle in the scheme of 
the new French division of the country. 

During the succeeding years before the fall of Napoleon 
the city, in which the Great Emperor stayed at Laeken 
several times for short periods, had an untroubled and even 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 165 

somewhat stagnant existence. But by the Treaty of Vienna, 
on September 28, 1814, when, as we have already seen, the 
erstwhile Austrian possessions and the Northern Provinces 
of the Low Countries were united so as to form the Kingdom 
of the Netherlands, under the rule of WilHam of Orange, 
the prosperity and population of Brussels, the size of which 
had greatly decreased under the French Empire, improved. 
Then came the *' National " movement and Revolution of 
1830, which ultimately led to the separation of Belgium 
from Holland. 

On this occasion the people were firmly united, realizing 
to the full the truth of the motto that was afterwards to be 
adopted as the national one : L' Union fait la Force. 

Unlike various other revolts and revolutions when power- 
ful members of the nobility and large sections of the clergy 
had taken the side of the foreigners or invaders, that of 1830 
numbered amongst its originators and supporters the 
nobility as a whole, represented by the members of many 
illustrious families, amongst them Felix de Merode and the 
Baron d'Hoogvorst ; the burghers by Charles Rogier, Van 
de Weyer, Van der Linden, Joly, Kessels, and others 
equally noted ; and the people by numberless artisans and 
soldiers, amongst the latter the famous Charlier with the 
wooden leg, who bombarded the Dutch garrison with a 
small cannon, and killed and wounded several hundred. 

The chief fighting of the ** Four Days " of September 23rd^ 
24th, 25th, and 26th centred round the Park. The patriots 
occupied the Hotel Belle Vue, firing from the windows upon 
the Dutch, who were entrenched in the Park itself, whilst 
Charlier and his single cannon took up a position near by. 
Some of the houses in the Rue Royale were also occupied 
by the patriots as far as the Montagne du Pare, where 
another barricade was thrown up. 

The first shots were fired in the neighbourhood of the old 
Porte de Schaerbeek. Soon, gaining courage by reason of 
their successes, the Revolutionaries forced their way into 
the Park, and engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand encounter 
with the Dutch troops. Although during the whole of the 
four days the fighting was fierce, it had its comic as well as 
its tragic side and interludes. For example, it was the 
practice of the combatants to fight all the morning till noon, 
and then adjourn for lunch, the Belgians leaving the 



1 66 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

battlefield to go home, the Dutch making themselves as 
comfortable as they could where they were entrenched. 
After dejeuner the Revolutionaries returned to the attack, 
and the fight recommenced ! 

The same thing happened in the evening when the dinner 
or supper hour arrived. 

On the night of September 26 the Dutch quietly crept 
away, and when the Revolutionaries came to renew the 
battle on the 27th they found, much to their astonishment, 
the Park evacuated and enemy gone. 

Brussels was free. 

"We have already seen, in our introductory chapters, how 
the country ultimately became settled under the rule of 
Leopold L, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and there is for this 
reason no need to refer further to the history of Brussels in 
more modern times. 

From the commencement of the reign of Leopold L the 
city began rapidly to recover its lost position as one of the 
great trading and commercial centres of Northern Europe. 
It is to-day beautiful, prosperous, and enterprising, en- 
dowed with a great historic past, and the promise of a great 
commercial future. 

The verdict that one is likely to pass upon Brussels, the 
history of which we have just briefly considered, at first 
sight as one approaches it and travels, as we did, into its 
heart from Namur by way of the wide, bustling Boulevard 
du Midi, and thence along the quieter and smarter Boule- 
vards du Hainaut and Anspach, can be but confirmed by a 
lengthened stay. We have seen Brussels under various 
conditions of social life, and at different seasons of the year, 
and it still remains to us not alone (as it undoubtedly is) a 
storehouse of Art and antiquarian treasures, but a pictur- 
esque and delightful city ; not merely ^^ une petite Paris,'' but 
a charming capital with some very distinctive features. 

The whole of Brussels strikes one as cleaner than the 
whole of Paris, just as the whole of Paris must* appear, at 
least to the casual observer, as more gay and less serious, 
from a commercial point of view, than Brussels. It may be 
quite true, as a famous Frenchman recently said, *' There 
exists no necessity to do one's business with a solemn face," 
but it is with concentration and not with sombreness that 
the Bruxellois goes about his work, earning those hours 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 167 

of recreation in which he will " let himself go " with the 
best. 

Certainly this ancient capital of the Province of Brabant, 
containing nowadays with its suburbs a population of up- 
wards of 600,000, which has quadrupled in sixty j'ears, has 
come to take its place amongst the most beautiful and 
charming capital cities of Europe. It is undoubtedly 
healthy, and there is an engaging air about Brussels which 
soon impresses itself upon the foreign visitor. Added to all 
its many attractions of interesting museums — the homes of 
wonderful and in some cases unrivalled collections of works 
of art — and of historical associations with the past, it pos- 
sesses the charm of being modern in the best sense and of 
being a place where one may find much that is finest in Art 
and Music. As a home of fashion it bids fair some day to 
rival Paris herself, and the shops of the Montague de la 
Cour, Boulevard Anspach, and contiguous streets are 
scarcely less luxurious or exclusive than those of the Rue 
de la Paix or Boulevard des Italiens in the French capital. 

Brussels is a city of shady boulevards, open spaces, and 
pleasant parks as is Paris ; and the beautiful Bois de la 
Cambre on its outskirts compares very favourably with the 
world-renowned Bois de Boulogne as regards rural charm 
and picturesqueness. 

One impression that Brussels is almost certain to make 
upon the visitor is its compactness. Its population, includ- 
ing the outskirts, is nowadays rather over 600,000 ; but it is 
almost impossible to realize that nearly one-eleventh of the 
whole population of Belgium is concentrated in this one city, 
or, as might be said, in Greater Brussels. Perhaps the real 
reason of this apparent lack of size is because there are in 
reality two cities, Brussels intcrieur and Brussels exterieur. 
The one with a population of about 225,000; the latter with 
one of about 375,000. It is with the former, of course, that 
the tourist and casual visitor are chiefly concerned. 

The outlying suburbs are, however, connected with the 
city proper by a splendid system of steam, electric, and 
other trams. In fact, it may be said that Brussels is in a 
sense surrounded by a group of small towns, which though 
forming part of the great city are yet independent, and are 
governed very much like the various boroughs which make 
up Greater London. Curhegem, St. Gilles, Ixelles, St. 



1 68 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Josse Ten Noode, Molenbeek St. Jean, and Schaerbeek, still 
further out, are all in a sense separate towns, seldom 
visited by, and indeed almost unknown to, the tourist. 

The most fashionable quarters for residences of the 
wealthy classes are the broad and beautiful Avenue Louise 
and the streets and avenues of the Quartier Leopold. 
They in a sense correspond to the Avenue du Bois de 
Boulogne, Avenue des Champs Elysee, and Boulevard St. 
Germain of Paris. 

There is another feature, too, that modern Brussels has 
in common with Paris of the immediate past and of to-day. 
It is being " Haussmannized," and the older and more 
quaint and interesting portions of the city (as has been, and 
is, the case in Paris) are gradually but surely disappearing 
to make way for the onward march of progress and expan- 
sion. Almost on every hand, and especially in the Porte de 
Namur quarter, old buildings are constantly falling victims 
to the " house-breaker," and new, in the shape of handsome 
mansions and lofty blocks of flats, are arising from their 
ashes. 

The last thirty — even twenty — years have seen many 
changes. During that period the sluggish little River Senne, 
which once meandered through the city, and upon whose 
banks stood many fine and picturesque old houses and 
buildings of past ages, has been arched over, and the fine 
Boulevard of the same name, and those of Hainaut and 
Anspach, have been built above its imprisoned waters. 
The higher portions of the city are undeniably healthy, and 
the climate of Brussels is less subject to extreme changes 
than that of Paris. It is not unbearably cold in winter, 
and though hot in summer, is not so, we think, airless as 
either Paris or London, a fact accounted for by reason of 
its many open spaces, its height above sea-level, and com- 
parative nearness to the North Sea. 

The social life of Brussels is not unlike that of Paris and 
other large towns of France and Eastern Germany, but it 
differs in some respects from both. It is less Gallic and 
pleasure-loving than the former, and more so than the latter. 
The great stolidity of German life is in a measure lacking, 
and there is more of the domestic life than in Paris, although 
the multiplication of flats and the consequent abandonment 
of the individual home cannot in the long run fail, we 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 169 

think, to have a detrimental effect upon the domestic hfe of 
the family. 

The ambition of the inhabitants of Brussels, whether 
they be dwellers in the fashionable quarters of the Avenue 
Louise, Quartier Leopold, or bourgeois of the Midi, Porte 
de Namur, or other similar quarters, is to become the pro- 
prietors and owners of their houses. The Belgians, as a 
nation, appear to regard the payment of rent as so much loss 
of money which could be better and more profitably em- 
ployed, and the money to purchase a dwelling, small or 
large, is thought the best kind of dot that a would-be 
bride can possess and bring to her future husband. It is 
largely because of this desire to own their own houses that 
the latter are built so very much alike, a feature that must 
very soon strike the stranger to the city. This peculiarity 
does not, of course, apply to the fine mansions and villas of 
the more wealthy classes, but to the dwellings which every 
year are being erected in greater numbers in the by-streets 
and outlying districts, and in the quarters within the city, 
where the older dwellings, which possess more distinctive 
features, are being pulled down to make room for lofty, 
narrow houses, which look almost as though they had been 
sliced off a mile or so and made in one mould. The modern 
architecture of private dwelhngs in Brussels is not, it will 
have been gathered from the preceding remarks, of a very 
diversified, original, or artistic character. Nor do architects 
exercise much ingenuity in preparing their designs. House 
property is, generally speaking, a good investment, the cost 
being much as with us. A well-built house containing seven 
or eight rooms, with the usual bathroom and other offices, 
standing on a plot of freehold land, can be bought in one 
of the most popular suburbs, such as St. Gilles, for about 
25,000 francs, or say £1,000, and a similar house a mile 
or two further out can be obtained for half that sum. 

In connection with the purchase of house property in 
Belgium, there is a tax of no less than 10 per cent, (a 
portion of which goes direct to the State) payable to the 
Commune in which the property is situated, on completion 
of the purchase. After having paid this tax, the happy 
proprietor is, to a large extent, relieved of further annual 
payments. The Communal taxes are inconsiderable, and in 
many cases (a friend who has long resided in Brussels in- 



lyo THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

formed us) they do not exceed 6 per cent, of the estimated 
rent, which is usually about an eleventh of the purchase 
price. The reason — or, at least, one of the reasons — for the 
popularity of the Belgian capital as a place of residence 
with English and other foreigners will be easily understood. 
A further sum of from 8 to lo per cent., the same informant 
stated, will pay for the Communal supply of both gas and 
water. It will be admitted that the city has not without 
some cause been described as the *' paradise of the small 
householder and owner of middle-class residential property." 
It is not difficult for most thrifty middle and lower middle- 
class Belgians to acquire their own houses, and to live in 
dwellings of quite an imposing type on very small incomes. 

It must, however, be said that the middle and upper 
middle-class Belgians are not guiltless of a love of display, 
which cannot altogether be classed with that, on the whole, 
admirable virtue of being '* house proud." The outside of 
the residences of many Belgians of the social position we 
have referred to is often an unreliable indication of their 
material prosperity and the inside comfort of the dwellings. 
Often the apparently luxurious villa will, upon inspection, 
prove but poorly, and even scantily, furnished, and the 
"show" is mostly on the outside. This, however, can 
scarcely be called a national characteristic. The people of 
other lands exhibit a like failing, although we must admit 
that with Belgians of the lower middle and middle class it 
is very frequently obvious. 

There is one other good resulting from the ownership of 
the house. The Belgians enjoy a well-deserved fame for 
taste in art and decoration, and the well-to-do spend more 
lavishly than do our own countrymen of a similar class upon 
the furnishing and decoration of their houses, and upon the 
acquisition of bric-a-brac and pictures. The furniture, when 
this can be afforded, is always good and of a substantial 
nature, much more so, our observation led us to think, than 
is the case in most English homes of a like character. 
Another feature of the Belgian home of the bourgeois class 
is the almost invariable presence of *' show " rooms. In 
these are gathered together all the treasures of art or 
furniture the family possess, and in the case of even people 
of moderate means considerable sums of money are locked 
up in these things and bric-a-brac. No one who has become 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 171 

personally familiar with the homes of the well-to-do Brussels 
bourgeoisie can have failed to have noticed the fact that 
most of the reception rooms have an appearance — nay, a 
very atmosphere — of disuse. In Belgium to-day survives 
just that custom of non-use of the better rooms of the house 
in middle-class and trading families which was so frequent 
in those of similar classes in England during Early and 
Mid-Victorian days. 

It is not easy for the stranger to gain an insight of the 
real domestic Hfe or apartments of the Belgian bourgeois. 
A visitor will be entertained most hospitably (if occasion 
require or offer) in the show-rooms ; he will see the members 
of the family in their best clothes, and with the manners of 
ceremony, but he will seldom penetrate into the real home, 
the " common room," the " undress " life of the family, even 
though he may be a lodger in the house, or a fairly intimate 
acquaintance. 

The daily life of the family in Brussels, which is in a large 
measure typical of all other large and small towns, com- 
mences early. Rising at seven, or even earlier, in summer, 
the whole family will have finished their first and light 
breakfast by eight o'clock, and much of the day's marketing 
will also have been done. At noon, all the offices and many 
of the shops are closed for the mid-day meal, and the restau- 
rants and creameries of all grades are crowded with hungry 
customers, whilst the more domestic and leisured principals 
of businesses and head-clerks — many of them hurry off home 
to snatch a well-earned meal in the family circle. This 
mid-day dinner is the most important meal of the day, 
unlike the general custom of Paris, where most people of 
the upper, upper middle, and even middle, classes make 
their evening repast the principal one — souper, on the other 
hand, having the general character of the Parisian dejeuner 
a la fouYchette, or lunch. 

The citizens of Brussels are, as we have said, early risers, 
and they go to bed at an hour well in advance of their 
fellow-citizens of Paris. By half-past nine or ten (in thou- 
sands of houses even earlier) lights will be out on five nights 
out of seven. Entertainments, save at the few night cafes, 
close early, and Brussels is, for the greater part, except as 
regards fashionable society folk in the season, slumbering 
long before eleven. 



172 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The Belgian is not a great player of indoor games, or, at 
all events, is not inclined to sit up much past the usual hour 
of retiring to play them, though cards, dominoes, and chess 
are popular. Also, broadly speaking, he is not a great 
reader ; nor are his wife and the younger members of his 
family. The daily paper and a few comic weeklies of native, 
French, or German origin satisfy the desires of most men of 
the bourgeoisie as regards recreation and information. Occa- 
sionally they may read a travel-book (if they are merchants 
interested in any foreign commodity) or a novel which has 
made a stir, but to stay up of a night to read either would 
not suggest itself to the mind of the average Belgian. He 
likes his repose far more than either improving his mind or 
exercising it by the romantic, tragic, or sentimental adven- 
tures of characters in fiction. 

Because, doubtless, of this habit of early rising and early 
retiring to well-earned rest, the evening life of Brussels is 
that which least entitles it to be called a " little Paris." It 
is distinctly dull when compared with that of the French 
capital. There are comparatively few good restaurants 
which are open, or, perhaps we should say, largely patron- 
ized, after eight or nine o'clock, and by half-past ten the 
chief streets and boulevards assume a decidedly deserted 
appearance, very greatly in contrast with those of Paris. 

But if its life, on the whole, is less fascinating and brilliant 
than that of the French capital, Brussels can compare very 
favourably with it as regards its splendid streets, open 
spaces, charming surroundings, fine and historic buildings, 
museums and art collections, and the many and excellent 
facilities which the city possesses for getting from one 
quarter to another, and from the centre to the suburbs. 

Of its fine buildings, none excels the Hotel de Ville, which 
is certainly one of the most interesting and beautiful build- 
ings of its kind in Belgium. It is well placed on one of the 
finest medieval squares in Europe, and is surrounded by 
quaint and historic houses. On this Grande Place many 
tragedies have from time to time been enacted, and some of j 
the most ferocious acts of the inhuman Alva performed. . 
In the spring of the terrible year 1568 no less than twenty- I 
five Flemish nobles were executed here, and in the June of '• 
the same year the patriots Lamoral, Count Egmont, Philip 
de Montmorency, and Count Hoorn were put to death. 



^i- 




/^Iv^^*^*" ^ 



GRANDE PLACE AND HOTEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 173 

This atrocious deed is commemorated by a fountain with 
statues of the heroes, placed in front of the Maison du Roi, 
from a window of which the Duke of Alva watched his 
orders carried out. 

This most beautiful Hotel de Ville, with its Late Gothic 
fa9ade approaching the Renaissance period nearly 200 feet 
in length, and with a beautiful and elegant central tower 
370 feet in height, was commenced, according to a well- 
known authority,* either in 1401 or 1402, the eastern wing, 
or left-hand portion as one faces it across the Place, having 
been the first part to be commenced, the western half of 
the fa9ade not having been begun until 1444. The later 
additions formed the quadrangle. The building of the 
western wing was undertaken by Charles, son of Philippe 
le Bon, known then as ^' jonghe heer van Sarlot/' and after- 
wards as Charles the Bold — on March 4 of the year we 
have just mentioned. The name of the architect of this 
fine and gracious building has not been handed down to 
us, although it is supposed that his name was Jacob van 
Thienen ; but that of the builder of the spire has. He was 
one Jan van Ruysbroek, and the tower was completed in 
^454* The wing of the building, which stands in the Rue 
Tete d'Or, was not commenced until later than the dates 
we have mentioned, and was not probably finished until the 
end of the fifteenth century. The side of the open square 
which lies parallel to the fa9ade was the work of the six- 
teenth century, and, having been greatly damaged — as was 
also the portion in the Rue Tete d'Or during Marshal 
Villeroi's bombardment of the city in 1695, was reconstructed 
and rebuilt between the years 1707 and 1717. In fact, after 
the cannonading little more than the spire and the outer 
walls of its two wings remained standing of the Hotel de 
Ville, and most of the ancient guild houses were in ruins. 

There are numerous niches in the fa9ade and other sides 
of the building. The first niche in the tower holds a statue 
of its builder, Jan van Ruysbroek. It is quite possible 
that many of the facade niches were never intended to con- 
tain statuary, only to serve as ornaments, and to break up 
the architecture. But, be this as it may, most of the ancient 
figures, which at one time were undoubtedly numerous, were 
ruined by the French Republican forces in 1793, and the 

* M. Schayes. 



174 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

many modern statues of the Dukes of Brabant and his- 
torical and other celebrities which have taken their place, 
appear to overcrowd and overload the front. 

The spire, which is crowned by a colossal gilded figure of 
the archangel St. Michael overcoming the Devil, was placed 
there first in 1454, and the original was the work of Martin 
van Rode, but it has been several times damaged, and 
several times renewed and regilded, on the last occasion in 
1897. It will be noted by the critical that the spire and 
belfry, though nominally, is not actually, in the centre of 
the facade. There is an unfounded tradition-^dying out 
nowadays, we believe — that Van Ruysbroek, the designer, on 
finding out this discrepancy, hanged himself from the tower. 

The two handsome fountains in the courtyard are 
emblematic of the two rivers the Scheldt and the Maas. 
The figures ornamenting them are those of river-gods. 

The interior of the building is of great interest. In the 
entrance corridor are several large paintings by Joseph 
Stallaert of Merchtem, one of which should be especially 
noticed for its subject, the " Death of Everard T'Serclaes," 
one of the most popular citizen-heroes in the history of 
Brussels. The portraits in the vestibule of the first floor 
are all comparatively modern ; among them are those of the 
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Charles II. of Spain, 
Francis II., and Joseph II. The lavish and elaborate 
decorations of the handsome Salle du Conseil Communal 
are so beautiful and ornate as to remind one of those of 
some of the more noted Venetian palaces. The ceiling 
decoration, by Victor Janssens, dates from the early part 
of the eighteenth century, and has for its subject the Gods 
on Olympus. It is chiefly noticeable for the remarkable 
effectiveness of its perspective. There are also some fine 
pieces of tapestry on the walls by Henri Reydams and 
Urbain Leyniers, the subjects of which are " The Abdica- 
tion of Charles V.," " The Coronation of the Emperor 
Charles VI. at Aix-la-Chapelle," and **The Entry of Philippe 
le Bon, Duke of Burgundy, into Brussels." 

Scarcely a room of this beautiful and historic building 
but contains some treasure of art which tempts not alone 
the student, but even the casual visitor, to linger. In the 
Salle Maximilian f to our mind the subject of surpassing 
interest is the triptych of an unknown Belgian artist of the 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 175 

fifteenth century, found in Italy, and acquired only a few 
years ago. It depicts scenes from the life of the Virgin, 
and is of great interest to all who are versed in Flemish Art, 
and its development from early times until its zenith. Most 
of the other rooms, including the large Salle Gothique, or 
Salle des Fetes, which is adorned with some very fine oak 
carving (modern) in the Gothic Style, contain tapestries, 
woven at Malines, in frank and not unsuccessful imitation 
of the Gobelins work, are paintings of considerable interest 
and merit, but most are comparatively, or quite, modern, 
and call for no detailed description. Interesting as are the 
Council Chamber, in which many historic scenes have been 
enacted in the past, and the Salle de College, in which the 
provisional Government held its sitting after the Revolution 
of 1830, the almost complete modernization of all the rooms 
has robbed them of much of the charm of antiquity. 

It may, we think after considerable experience, be safely 
said that no Grand Place in Northern Europe is so rich in 
ancient and historic houses as that of Brussels, though 
most of them are careful restorations, according to the old 
plans, of the Guild Houses damaged or destroyed by Ville- 
roi's cannonade. Opposite the Hotel de Ville stands the 
famous Maison dtc Roi, or Broodhuis (Bread House), on 
the site of an eleventh-century building, occupied as a 
residence towards the middle of the twelfth century by 
Pope Innocent II. and St. Bernard. The present building 
dates from 15 14 onwards for a period of about ten years, 
and the style of its architecture is largely transition from 
the Late Gothic to the Renaissance. It was much injured 
by Villeroi's bombardment (as were, indeed, most of the other 
houses in the Grand Place and neighbourhood), and was 
restored in 1763. It was practically rebuilt rather more than 
a century later according to the original plan, and was, about 
i8g6, taken over by the municipal authorities. The Musee 
Communal is now housed there. It contains a few things 
of interest, historically and artistically. The paintings are 
mostly modern, and many are of doubtful origin. It was 
in this house that Egmont and Hoorn spent the night pre- 
ceding their execution ; and, according to tradition, it was 
from one of the centre windows of the second floor that 
they stepped forth and reached the block, by means of a 
raised scaffolding which had been erected to prevent the 



176 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

necessity of the popular heroes descending amongst the 
populace, with the risk of a rescue. 

Most of the other Guild Houses, which form so pic- 
turesque and interesting a feature of this fine square, date 
from the period immediately following the useless and 
vandalistic bombardment by the French — that is to say, 
they were erected, or practically rebuilt, at the end of the 
seventeenth or during the early years of the eighteenth ^ 
century, when the municipality offered prizes to the Guilds 
most handsomely restoring the shattered buildings. The 
first award, it is said, was given to the house known as " Les 
Deux Negres," at the corner of the Rue de la Colline. 

Many of the houses are richly ornamented with gilding, 
and one of the quaintest is the " Fregate," or " Hall of the 
Sea Captains," the gable of which has been constructed to 
resemble the stern of a large vessel of the seventeenth 
century. Among others which deserve notice and mention 
are the " Hotel des Brasseurs," or " Brewers' Hall," dating 
from the middle of the eighteenth century, on the gable of 
which is an equestrian statue of Charles of Lorraine. At 
the corner of the Rue au Beurre stands the house known 
commonly as *' Le Roi d'Espagne," or " Hall of the Bakers," 
a fine new building, reconstructed after the ancient plans as 
recently as igo2. The " Maison de la Louve," or " Archers' 
Hall," derives its distinguishing name from the group ot 
Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf, the gable being 
adorned with a gilt phoenix. Of the really ancient houses, 
the most interesting is that known as the " Pigeon," or " Hall 
of the Painters," standing on the north-east side of the 
Place. It was erected in 1537, and fortunately escaped any 
serious damage during the bombardment. 

These are, after all, but a selection of the picturesque 
buildings with their lavish exterior decoration and gilding 
which give such a medieval atmosphere and appearance to 
this historic spot. All of them are worth the careful study 
of students and serious visitors. 

Few tourists, we imagine, from the crowds we have seen 
and what we have been told by Belgian friends, fail to go 
to the back of the Hotel de Ville in search of the famous 
bronze " Mannikin " Fountain of Duquesnoy. The figure 
of the " mannikin " is of greater artistic merit than might 
be supposed. It is a popular idol, immensely beloved by 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 177 

the lower classes, who deck it with flowers and ribbons on 

gala occasions when it is also dressed up in the clothes 

which are kept in the Museum of the Maison du Roi. The 

elasticity of the *' mannikin's " political sympathies would 

do credit to an American politician. They change with the 

necessities of the time and popular favour. He has worn 

the white cockade in 1747, when Louis XV. captured the 

city ; he was decked out in the national colours during the 

Brabantine Revolution of 1789 ; and during the occupation 

of the French in 1793 in the tricolour. Then when Brussels 

became Dutch this " mannikin " put on the colours of the 

House of William of Orange, the then ruler of the joint 

kingdoms of Flanders and the Netherlands. Lastly, in 

1830, when the Belgians, discontented with forming a 

portion of the Netherlands, started the successful revolution 

in Brussels for the purpose of expelling the Dutch garrison, 

he put on the blouse of the Revolutionary Nationalists. 

There is a story — we know of no evidence, however, to 

prove its authenticity — that Louis XV. when in Brussels 

was so taken with the little man that he decorated him with 

the cross of the Order of St. Louis ! 

This quaint figure has a legend attached to it that no 

conqueror of the city who succeeds in carrying it off will 

long retain it. Certain it is that none hitherto has ; for, 

although stolen in turn by the citizens of Antwerp, by the 

English after the battle of Fontenoy, by the French under 

Louis XV., and by the English a short period later, and it 

is said also by the Dutch, it has always returned to enjoy 

the honours, pensions, and admiration of the good citizens 

of Brussels. 

The Grande Place, around and in which so much of the 

municipal and commercial life of the past has centred, and 

still centres to-day, has more than once been the scene of 

historic and splendid pageants. It was here in 1428 that 

the Duke of Burgundy was entertained by his cousin the 

Duke Philip at a great tournament, "which lasted (we are 

told) three days with much skilful jousting and merriment 

of gallant knights and fair ladies." 

An old chronicler adds that there were ** seven or eight 

score helmets in the Place, and crowds of ladies and damsels 

richly dressed in the fashions of the country." The sword 

of honour for the best jousting was won by Lord de Croy. 
12 



178 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The Cathedral at Brussels is dedicated jointly to 
Ste. Gudule and St. Michael. The former is one of the 
luckiest saints in that respect, as probably but for this 
dedication she would have remained amongst the many 
rather obscure saints of the early periods of Christianity. 
She was a grand-niece of Pepin of Landen, a kinsman of 
Charlemagne, a daughter of Ste. Amalberga, and was edu- 
cated by Ste. Gertrude, her godmother, at Nivelles. Few 
facts concerning her have come down to us. The only one 
popularly known is that Gudule was an early riser in order 
to attend prayers at a distant church, to which on dark 
mornings she had to guide herself by means of a lantern. 
One morning, hov/ever, so the legend goes, **the Devil, 
always wishful to prevent saints, and to disturb the godly," 
caused her lantern to go out. But upon Ste. Gudule falling 
upon her knees in prayer the lantern was miraculously relit, 
"which happened as often as the Devil in his malignity 
extinguished it." It is for this reason that the saint is 
invariably shown carrying a lantern in her hand, often, 
too, with the figure of the Devil beside her in the act of 
blowing out the light. Ste. Gudule died in the year 712. 
In the tenth century her body was brought from Morseel to 
Brussels. It was not, however, until the year 1047 that 
Lambert, Count of Louvain, commenced to build a church 
on the present site above the body of the saint, which 
still reposes in the Church of Ste. Gudule of to-day 
which in the year 1220 took the place of the small original 
church. 

It is to this church that most visitors to Brussels first 
wend their way after visiting the Grande Place and its 
delightful Flower Market, which is gay with blossoms on 
most days of the week all the year round. The natural 
situation of the church is a fine one, which was made the 
most of by its architects and builders of long ago. Stand- 
ing, as it does, on the side of a hill reached from the Grande 
Place by the fine Rue de la Montague and short, steep Rue 
Ste. Gudule, it stands overlooking the city with its two fine 
twin western towers dominating the neighbouring streets. 
These towers have appeared to us when viewed up the Rue 
Ste. Gudule and other streets leading up from the lower 
town to the church, generally to be veiled by a mystic grey 
or ambient haze, and to gain much in impressiveness and 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 179 

grandeur from the coup d'ceil one obtains of them framed, 
as it were, in the end of the rising street. 

The double flight of steps by which they are approached, 
and the platform upon which they stand, add much to the 
effect of their solid and exquisitely designed massiveness. 
Formerly — we are speaking of about half a century ago — the 
church, like so many others in Belgium, and in Normandy 
in particular, was masked and spoiled in its effectiveness by 
encroaching houses. Fortunately, these have, nowadays, 
been cleared away, and Ste. Gudule stands out the dominant 
note of this portion of the city — beautiful and serene. The 
fine towers, dating from 1518,* which are 226 feet in 
height, are supposed by some to have been originally 
furnished with elegant spires, but this appears doubtful, 
as there is no real evidence of it. M. Schayes, however, 
inclines to the belief that they were once united by a wide 
flat arch of great boldness, and if this was the case, the 
appearance of the western end of the church must have 
resembled that of Notre Dame at Mantes. There is a 
doorway in the front of each tower opening into the aisles, 
and in the centre of the fa9ade is a double doorway dating 
from the year 1518, leading into the fine and impressive 
nave. There are lancet arches above all the doorways ; two 
are coupled, and have above them a window, and the front 
is adorned by a gable with a very beautiful parapet. 

The south side of the church is particularly well worth 
study, by reason of the great picturesqueness and charm 
which is given it by the range of side chapels. They and 
their acute gables greatly add to the richness of effect. Each 
has a gable with crocketed mouldings of elegant design ; bold 
flying buttresses and pinnacles and gargoyles of elegant or 
fantastic shape adding their quota of elegance. 

This portion of the church was finished at a compara- 
tively late period, but probably followed an earlier design. 
The front of the south transept, which dates from about 1273, 
is rather poor, notwithstanding the fact that it has a good 
porch attached to it, added about the end of the fifteenth 
century. The other end of the transept was completed 
about the same time as the towers. The western windows 
of the choir, and the severely designed buttresses between 
them, give an impressive effect to this portion of the church 
* Some authorities give the date as the end of the fifteenth century. 



i8o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

which dates from the same period as the south end of the 
transept. It should be noticed that the tracery in the 
windows, though good of its kind, is later in date. The 
exterior of the eastern end is very beautiful, but the charm- 
ing general effect is somewhat spoiled by the presence of 
the ugly little hexagonal chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, 
dating from the last half of the seventeeth century. 

It is impossible to note all the admirable details of the ex- 
terior of this fine church, but the picturesque little tabernacles 
which surmount the double flying buttresses, the canopy of 
tracery which is above the heads of the windows, and 
the good pierced work should have special attention given 
to them. 

The immense lateral chapels of the choir are late 
additions. That on the north is dedicated to the St. Sacre- 
ment des Miracles. It was so dedicated to commemorate 
the events which followed the stealing, by a Jew, of some 
wafers of the Host. 

The legend of the Miraculous Wafers is probably one of 
quite a number of similar stories invented by the monks and 
priests for the purpose of influencing the superstitious, and 
may very possibly also have its origin in the hatred and 
contempt in which the Jews of that period were held. Any 
accusation which would enable the populace to attack the 
latter and confiscate their goods being eagerly seized upon. 

The story goes that a Jew by the name of Jonathan, 
residing in the little town of Enghien in the year 1369, 
prevailed upon one of his fellow Jews, named John of 
Louvain, who was a sham convert to Christianity, to steal 
for him some of the consecrated wafers used in the service 
of the Mass. At first, we are told, John of Louvain refused 
to be a party to this crime, but a promise of sixty gold angels 
appears to have ultimately overcome his fears and scruples, 
with the result that one dark night in the month of October 
of the year we have named, he broke into the Church of 
Ste. Catherine, Brussels, and stole the ciborium containing 
the wafers, the number of which is variously stated to have 
been from three to sixteen. 

Soon afterwards, it appears, the instigator of this sacrilege 
was murdered in his own garden, and his wife removed to 
Brussels, carrying with her the stolen wafers. On Good 
Friday a number of Jews gathered together in their 



1 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT i8i 

synagogue, which then stood near the Hotel Dieu, and the 
wafers having been produced they were thrown upon the 
table and subjected to all the insults which the Jewish 
mind could conceive. Finally, some of those present 
stabbed them with their knives, when they were horror- 
struck to see drops of blood oozing from them. Many, 
we are told, of the impious Jews fell to the floor in fits 
brought about by this extraordinary miracle. The per- 
petrators of this sacrilege were ultimately discovered by 
means of a second miracle, and on being confronted with 
witnesses confessed what they had done. Another version 
of the story, however, states that they were cruelly tortured 
to extort a confession, and afterwards were burned alive, 
their goods confiscated, and all the Jews in Brussels 
banished outside the Province of Brabant. 

This gruesome medieval legend is illustrated in the large 
stained glass windows of the chapel, which also contain 
portraits of the donors. King John III. of Portugal, Louis 
of Hungary, Francis I. of France, Ferdinand of Austria, 
and their wives and patron saints. 

The wafers are said to be still preserved in the chapel, and 
are carried in procession on the Sunday which follows July 15. 

The end window of the chapel represents the Adoration 
of the Holy Sacrament and of the slain Lamb. The com- 
position of the subject strongly suggests that of the Van 
Dyck in the Cathedral at Ghent. 

It cannot be said that the interior of Ste. Gudule's as 
a whole comes up to the expectations, which are aroused 
by the impressive, and from many points beautiful, exterior. 
But it is not without nobility, notwithstanding the paint, 
and none too wise restoration in places. The spacious effect 
which at once strikes one is largely owing to the absence of 
the commonplace seventeenth or eighteenth century rood- 
screen and rococo altar-piece which so frequently disfigure 
Belgian churches. The stained glass of Ste. Gudule is 
almost world-famed, although none (with the possible ex- 
ception of a few fragments here and there) is medieval. 
The most beautiful and successful windows date from the 
seventeenth century, though some of the more modern ones 
are very fine of their kind. 

From the west end of the church, standing just inside the 
main door, one obtains an impressive view of the high choir, 



1 82 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

its apse, and the fully developed and graceful triforium of 
Early Gothic architecture. The portion of the latter which 
is above the choir is interesting on account of showing some- 
thing like plate-tracery in the head of each opening of the 
coupled arches. The shafts dividing the last are somewhat 
thick and clumsy, but are nevertheless handsome and 
effective. The piers, except on one side of the transept, 
are round. Unfortunately, those of the nave are spoiled 
(as is the general effect) by the placing of huge figures of the 
Apostles against them. The caps of the pillars are decorated 
with knots of oak-leaves in double rows, backed by a kind 
of trellis the effect of which is decidedly pleasing. As is 
the case with the Cathedral at Antwerp, the bases of the 
octagonal pillars are unusually low, probably for the same 
reason, namely, that the floor level has been raised since 
the church was built. The clustered vaulting shafts have 
caps and bases, and rest upon the abaci of the piers. 

The clerestory has six lights with rich and varied geo- 
metrical heads of tracery, which are restorations. This 
interesting portion of the building dates from about 1518. 
The south end of the transept and a part of that of the 
north are of contemporary date with the choir, that is to 
say, about 1273. The bases of the vaulting in the nave 
should be particularly noted, as they are richer than is 
usually found in Belgian churches. The roof is about the 
same period as the clerestory. 

The choir ambulatory contains at the commencement of 
the apse on the left-hand side of the church, a large figure 
of Ste. Gudule trampling the Devil beneath her feet. The 
pillars on the right of the apse are fine, and the stained 
glass interesting and good, though quite modern. As one 
leaves the apse, having made the circuit of the ambulatory, 
one finds a gilded statue of St. Michael, the second patron of 
the church, balancing that of Ste. Gudule on the other side. 
Close to it is a quaint and interesting wooden Easter 
Sepulchre, with figures of the Virgin, the two Maries, Joseph 
of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, with the risen Christ above 
and Roman soldiers below. This, we have noted, appears 
to possess a great attraction for provincials of the peasant 
and petit bourgeois class, who gaze at the wooden (in more 
senses than one) figures open-mouthed. 

The stained glass of the choir apse dates from the middle 




ST. (;uDULE, p.rus.sp:i.s 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 183 

of the sixteenth century. The subjects are the Virgin, the 
patron saints, and various kings and queens in adoration of 
Our Lady. Among the latter are Maximilian of Austria, 
and Mary Burgundy; Philippe III. le Beau, and his wife, 
Johanna the Mad of Castile, Charles V., and Philippe IL 
of Spain. The architecture of this portion of the church 
forms an interesting specimen of Early Gothic work. 

The remaining other chapel of importance on the southern 
side of the ambulatory is dedicated to Notre Dame de 
Delivrance. It was built from 1649-63. Originally both 
the choir aisles of the church were bordered with small 
chapels like those of the nave, and were divided from the 
aisles by pointed arches which sprang from clustered columns. 
About the year 1634, however, those of the northern aisle 
were pulled down, and the single large chapel of St. Sacra- 
ment des Miracles took their place, and a century later, to 
gain uniformity, those of the southern aisle were also pulled 
down, and the chapel we are now about to describe built in 
their place. By these alterations the plan of the church 
became a parallel triapsidal. 

The windows of the chapel of Notre Dame de Deliv- 
rance are from designs by Van Thulden, carried out in 1656. 
They are far inferior in quality and execution to those in 
the chapel of the St. Sacrament des Miracles^ and show 
evidence of the decay into which the art of glass-painting 
had by that time fallen. The subjects are naturally taken 
from the life of the Virgin, and are seen in the upper 
portions of the windows, the lower being occupied by the 
donors and princes of the House of Austria with their 
patron saints. In the fourth, or outer, window there is a 
representation of the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, the figure 
and odd hat worn by the former marking it as having been 
inspired by, if not actually copied from, the Rubens in 
Antwerp Cathedral. 

Ste. Gudule, other than in its architecture, relies almost 
entirely for interest in its stained glass. The church 
possesses few pictures, and none of any particular value 
or note. There are, however, some valuable and inter- 
esting pieces of tapestry, the work of Van der Borght, 
dating from the end of the eighteenth century, the subject 
of which is the story of the Miraculous Wafers. The 
pulpit, which was formerly in the Church of the Jesuits at 



1 84 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Louvain, is the work of Verbruggen, and dates from 1699. 
It is considered by some critics to be "a horrible monstrosity 
in the worst possible taste of a tasteless period." But 
although bewilderingly elaborate in its carving it represents 
much good work, and is famous, and much admired by the 
average visitor to the church. The subject is the Expulsion 
of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Above the sounding- 
board or canopy are figures of the Virgin and Child, the 
latter bruising the head of the serpent with the Cross. 
The Tree of Life, which supports the platform, overshadows 
innumerable animals carved on the railing and elsewhere. 
Some of these are said to represent the vices of fallen 
man. 

In the sacristy there are some relics and valuable gifts 
made to the church by the Archduke Albert and the Infanta 
Isabella of Spain, including one of the largest portions of 
the True Cross known to exist. 

Southward from Ste. Gudule, a little distance beyond the 
University, lies the interesting Gothic Church of Notre 
Dame de la Chapelle, built in 1216 upon the site of a 
simple oratory, the foundation stone of which was, it is 
said, laid by Godefroi-le-Barbu, Duke of Brabant, about the 
year 1134. Formerly this chapel stood outside the walls of 
Brussels, and the patronage vested in the famous Abbey of 
Ste. Sepulchre at Cambrai. Very early in the thirteenth 
century it was raised to the status of a parish church, and 
about 12 16 the existing choir and transept were built. The 
nave was not erected till 1421-1428. 

In the choir and transepts the student has an interesting 
example of the Transitional and Early Pointed Periods of 
architecture, of which so few examples are left in the 
churches of Brabant. The building has other features of 
interest from the " mixture " of its architectural styles. In 
it one can trace the Romanesque, First Pointed, and in the 
nave some very good fifteenth-century work. Externally, 
the portions of the building which most interested us were 
the choir and south transept, although these suffer con- 
siderably in effectiveness by the dwarfing appearance pro- 
duced by the nave, the aisle walls of which reach as high as 
the spring of the gable of the transept. The old central 
tower (upper part pulled down), the remains of which now 
form a continuation of the clerestory in the nave, was very 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 185 

severe in character ; and the present tower at the west end 
is not a particularly imposing or interesting structure. 

The interior of the church is distinctly pleasing, elegant, 
and spacious; and the unusually handsome clusters of 
shafts form the piers supporting the arch opening to the 
full height of the building into the nave from the tower, 
producing a remarkably noble effect when seen from a 
distance at the east end. The ingenuity by which some of 
the Romanesque features were retained at the time the 
building underwent alterations and reconstruction in part 
at the commencement of the thirteenth century, should be 
noted by all who are at all interested in the more advanced 
study of architecture. 

The church possesses several interesting altar-pieces and 
pictures, and on entering one sees on the left a marble 
monument to the artist, A. C. Lens, who died in 1822, and 
for whom it is, we think, somewhat extravagantly claimed 
in the inscription that he was *' the regenerator of the 
art of painting in Belgium," with the additional statement 
that he was " a perfect Christian." 

In the aisles there are several interesting altar-pieces or 
the seventeenth century, and in the various chapels a few 
good pictures by Jaspar de Grayer and Theodore Van 
Thulden. 

The sacristy contains some rich ecclesiastical vestments 
and other treasures; and the pulpit, which is less over- 
elaborate than that of the Cathedral, is worth attention. It 
is the work of Plumier, and represents Elijah in the 
Wilderness. The high altar, which superseded one from 
designs by Rubens, is not pleasing or tasteful, and as a 
whole the church, interesting though its architectural details 
undoubtedly are, has been over-restored. 

The other medieval church of any considerable interest in 
Brussels is that of Notre Dame des Victoires du SabloUy 
which can be easily reached from the Chapelle by the Rue 
Montague de la Cour, Place Royale, and the fine Rue de la 
Regence. 

It is a well-isolated Late Gothic building, standing on the 
site of an old and small chapel, erected in the first years of 
the fourteenth century by the Corporation of Archers 
or Crossbowmen, in commemoration of the Battle of 
Woeringen, at which Duke John I. of Brabant gained a 



1 86 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

signal victory over the Count of Guelders and the Arch- 
bishop of Cologne. 

The handsome and deeply recessed western portal, and 
the most beautiful traceried window above it, at once arrest 
one's attention. In the rose window of the south transept 
one has a rare feature in the architecture of Belgian 
churches. Though pleasing and effective it cannot, of 
course, compare with the many beautiful examples found in 
some of even the smaller French churches. The southern 
porch below is the most ancient portion of the building, and 
dates from about 1410. The lofty choir is especially im- 
pressive ; it terminates in a five-sided apse, and possesses no 
aisles. It should be noted that this church is one of the 
few in Belgium — and this makes it of especial interest to the 
student — planned with double aisles to each side of the nave. 

Unfortunately the church has a coating of whitewash, but 
the general impression created on the mind by the interior 
is a pleasing and harmonious one. 

Among the small details that may be noticed is the ex voto, 
in the form of a ship, placed over the inside of the main 
entrance in commemoration of a sacred image, which, it is 
stated, miraculously floated ashore when lost at sea ; the 
partially restored tomb of Count Flaminio Garnier, secretary 
to the Duke of Parma, with a series of fine alabaster Renais- 
sance reliefs, depicting the history of the Virgin ; the pulpit ; 
the two seventeenth-century burial chapels (to the left of 
the choir) of the Princes of Thurn and Taxis; the fine 
modern stained glass ; and the memorial tablet to Rousseau, 
the French poet, who died at Genette, near Brussels, in 
1741, placed near the door of the sacristy. Rousseau was 
buried here just a hundred and one years after his death. 

The series of mural paintings in the choir by Van der 
Plaetsen are chiefly of interest as being exact reproductions 
of ancient frescoes of processions, dating from the fifteenth 
century, discovered under the whitewash during restorations 
in i860. The originals, unhappily, were injured beyond the 
possibility of repair. 

Although, as may be well imagined, there are several 
other interesting, and many unimportant, churches in 
Brussels, there are none that need be visited by any save 
the most inveterate student of architecture or sightseer. Of 
those which deserve a few moments' attention by enthusiasts 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 187 

may be mentioned St. Jacques sur Caudenberg, formerly 
the abbey church of an old Augustine foundation, and the 
State church of the Spanish governors ; and the Eglise du 
Beguinage, dating from 1657, and erected, it is supposed, 
from designs by Lucas Faid'herbe, containing several good 
pictures by De Crayer, Otho Vaenius, and others. 

Of the other fine and historic buildings which Brussels 
boasts, the Palais du Roi stands on the southern side of the 
beautiful park, in which there is a theatre, ** Vauxhall " 
garden, ponds, and tree-shadowed walks, in summer even- 
ings crowded by throngs of happy Brussels bourgeois and 
their families, intent on taking the air and enjoying the 
scenes of gaiety around them. Occupying the site of the 
castle of the Dukes of Brabant and the Spanish governors, 
burned down in 1731, it is now a handsome building, the 
structure which replaced the old one destroyed by fire having 
been remodelled and greatly added to of late years. The 
interior is a storehouse of beautiful pictures, furniture, and 
bric-a-brac, and is well worth seeing, though seldom shown 
of late years to any save those who bring official influence to 
bear. Quite close by is the Palais des Academies, overlooking 
the south-eastern corner of the park. Formerly it was the 
Palais Ducal, and it was presented to Prince (afterwards 
King) William IL of Holland in 1829. Since the middle of 
the last century it has been the home of the Royal 
Academies of Sciences, Lettres, Beaux Arts, and Medicine, 
both of which possess valuable and interesting libraries. 

At the opposite end of the park are situated the principal 
Government offices on the Place de la Nation, including the 
Palais de la Nation, built from designs by the famous 
Brussels architect, Guimard, in 1779-83, for the use of the 
old Council of Brabant. Since the Revolution of 1831 and 
the formation of Belgium into a separate kingdom, it has 
served for the purposes of the Belgian Senate and Chamber 
of Deputies. The building is worth a visit, and if a sitting 
of the Chamber is proceeding, it has additional interest for 
those who are fortunate enough to know a member and 
procure an order for admission. The proceedings lack 
some of the dignity of our own House of Commons when at 
its best, and the debates, we have found, like those of the 
Chamber of Deputies in Paris, the Vienna Reichrath, and 
the Hungarian Diet, are generally characterized by more 



1 88 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

life and personal invective than those of the British 
Parliament. 

The imposing Palais de Justice stands on the Place 
Poelaert, named in honour of the architect of these magnifi- 
cent law courts, on which the immense sum of 50,000,000 
francs, or ^^2, 000,000 sterling, was spent. The buildings 
cover an area larger than that occupied by St. Peter's, 
Rome, and, indeed, form a magnificent monument of civic 
munificence. The huge block, which is 590 feet long by 
560 feet deep, is surmounted by a cupola, which is supported 
by colossal statues of Justice, Law, Power, and Clemency. 
The architecture of the building strikes one as having an 
element of the Assyrian character about it, and, indeed, the 
architect, Poelaert, is stated to have acknowledged his in- 
debtedness to that ancient art for the governing idea. In 
the details the Graeco-Roman style has been closely 
followed. The gilded crown on the top of the small dome 
is 400 feet above the pavement of the Rue des Minimes at 
the side of the building, and 340 feet above the stones of 
the Place Poelaert. The steps leading to the vestibule are 
adorned with gigantic statues of the great orators of the 
past — Demosthenes, Cicero, Lycurgus, and Domitius 
Ulpian. There are no less than 27 courts, 8 open courts, 
and 245 rooms of various sizes connected with the legal work 
of the nation within the building, and there is a handsome 
and lofty Salle de Pas Perdus with galleries under the 
central dome. 

From the terrace of the Place Poelaert there is a fine 
view over the picturesque roofs of the city, and seen at 
sunset, as we have often seen it under varying conditions 
of clearness and opalescent haze, the prospect is a most 
beautiful one. 

At the northern end of the Rue aux Laines, near the 
Place du Petit Sablon, stands the Palace of the Due D'Aren- 
berg, in which Lamoral, the famous Count Egmont, resided. 
It was built in 1548, and restored in 1753, and has a modern 
right wing. It is now the property of the municipality. 
There was a serious fire in 1892, which did considerable 
damage to the oldest portion of the building, but, happily, 
the private apartments of the Brussels hero, Count Egmont, 
escaped injury. The collection of pictures, some 170 in 
number, housed on the first floor, is an important and 



I 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 189 

admirable one. The canvases are mostly of the seventeenth 
century, by Dutch and Flemish masters. Among the 
pictures are examples of Philip Wouverman, D. Teniers 
the younger (" Skittle Players "), J. Van Craesbeek (" The 
Artist's Studio "), Adrian Van Ostade (" Tavern Interior "), 
W. Van Der Welde the younger, Franz Hals (" The Merry 
Toper "), David Teniers the elder, G. Terburg, Watteau 
(" Bathing in the Open Air," " Fete Galante," and " Lady 
at her Toilet "), Paul Potter, Jacques Jordaens (** As the 
Old have Sung, so Pipe the Young"), and Koharsky 
(" Portrait of Marie Antoinette, painted in the Temple " ; 
most interesting). In Room I. we particularly noticed the 
fine ** Portrait of Count Elbert of Arenberg," by A. Van 
Dyck, ** Portrait of a Lady," " Portrait of Anna Maria of 
Camudio," and "The Rape of Amphitrite," by Jacques 
Jordaens. There are also some interesting printed books, 
some containing miniatures, which bibliophiles will be sure 
to covet. 

Among the other smaller collections of pictures in 
Brussels is one of a very different nature — that in the 
Wiertz Museum, which has been variously described as 
" modernism in art gone mad," and " madness in pig- 
ments." It is situate near the Pare Leopold, behind the 
station of the Quartier Leopold, and near the Natural 
History Museum. It is distinctly, even on a bright summer 
morning, when we last visited it, not a place for people with 
nerves or those who are subject to nightmare. The Museum 
is the studio and country residence of the eccentric painter, 
Anton Joseph V^iertz. There is, it must be admitted, a 
certain grim and ironical power in most of the pictures, and 
in some a deeper meaning than would probably suggest 
itself to the casual visitor, as an American said, ** come to 
enjoy a feast of flesh-creeping some." Among the most 
important pictures are "The Flight into Egypt," "The 
Beacon of Golgotha," "The Burnt Child," "Orphans," 
" The Lion of Waterloo," " The Toilet," "The Rosebud," 
"An Ambuscade," "The Last Cannon," "Portrait of My 
Mother," and " The Concierge." Other paintings of an 
even more realistic character, amongst them " The Novel 
Reader," " Hunger, Madness, and Crime," " Buried Alive," 
and " Quasimodo," are hidden behind screens, in which 
holes have been cut to enable one to view them. Of the 



I90 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

genius of Wiertz there can be no question, but we think it 
was that genius which approximates too nearly to madness 
to enable it to carry out any mission or accomplish any 
revolution in taste successfully. . 

The art treasures of Brussels, enshrined in the Musee 
Royal de Peinture A ncienne et des Sculpture ; in the handsome 
Palais des Beaux Arts ; the Musee Moderne de Peinture, in the 
Ancienne Cour, once the residence of the Austrian Stadt- 
holders of the Netherlands, adjoining the Royal Library ; 
and the Musees Royatix des Arts Decor atifs et Industriels, and 
Musee d' Antiquites et d'Ar mures, erected in 1381, and used by 
the Duke of Alva as the Belgian Bastille, which has had its 
vaulted chambers skilfully adapted for its present purpose, 
are celebrated throughout the world. They one and all con- 
tain priceless treasures which the scope of the present volume 
will not permit us to attempt to name or describe, however 
briefly. Nearly all great artists of the past and present of the 
Flemish or Dutch schools are well represented, as are the 
masters of foreign schools in the Musee de Peinture Moderne. 

The galleries of the Palais des Beaux Arts are rich in the 
works of the old Flemish masters, including some wonderful 
examples of Roger Van der Weyden, Memlinc's master ; 
and Dierick Bouts ; in those of the schools of the transi- 
tional period of Flemish and Dutch art, down to the third 
great period of Rubens, and his notable successors, Rem- 
brandt, Franz Hals, Gerard Dow, the Teniers, and others. 

It may, of course, be justly urged by critics, for example, 
that Memlinc's works in the Palais des Beaux Arts, fine 
though they are, do not equal in interest or value those at 
Bruges, that Rubens should be studied at Antwerp rather 
than here, and that Quentin Matsys can also be better seen 
at Antwerp. But if this be so there are scores of works 
of other artists which form connecting links in the golden 
chain of the progressive art of painting which can be seen 
nowhere else to such advantage, or in such admirable 
company. 

To merely see the treasures of the Musee Royal de Peinture 
Ancienne et de Sculpture, and those of the Musee Moderne de 
Peinture, occupies several mornings. To really study these 
collections would take several weeks. 

At all events, however short the time at one's disposal, 
one leaves these galleries with an almost biting impression 



BRUSSELS PAST AND PRESENT 191 

of the greatness of the masters of the past ; of the genius 
which inspired their works ; of the lessons they, though 
many of them long dead, can teach ; and the knowledge 
they can convey in a few hours of the life, character, and 
sentiment of past ages. They reconstitute the past by a 
series of pictures, commencing when Chivalry was in flower, 
and lead us on down through the Middle Ages to the very 
verge of the nineteenth century, when in a sense symbolism 
for a time, at least, died, and romance was in a measure 
ousted by the more practical aims and ends of modern 
civilization. 

It is not unfitting, we think, that a city with such an 
historic past as Brussels, a place where the triumphs of Art 
through many centuries survives, should be surrounded by 
such natural beauties as it is. Northward one has the 
beautiful Royal Park of Laeken, with its palace built in 1782 
by Montoyer, and occupied several times by Napoleon 
during the years 1803-1814. Southward lies the exquisite 
Bois de la Cambre, a portion of the old Foret de Soignes, 
now a beautiful park laid out somewhat on the lines of the 
Bois de Boulogne, but wilder in parts. Then there is the 
pretty park of Tervuelen, the rendezvous in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries of gallants and fair ladies, and the 
scene of Fetes Champetres, Court Festivals, and hunting 
parties, with its ten small lakes, charming dells, and wood- 
land beauties. Not to speak of Boisfort, with its compara- 
tively untamed beech and pine woods, water-lily ponds, and 
winding, tree-shaded paths. And other " forests," small and 
large, north, south, east, and west. 

Both within its borders and immediately beyond them 
Brussels is well endowed with woods and spots where the 
hum of the city can for a time be no longer heard, houses be 
lost sight of, and even the song of birds be listened to and 
the charm of shy, growing wild flowers be discovered. 

Much might, of course, be written of Brussels as a great 
commercial city, with its busy markets, crowded docks, and 
its fine, silent highway of the New Canal, connecting it with 
the North Sea, which will perhaps some day enable it to 
rival Antwerp. But to tell the whole story of Brussels, with 
its teeming, varying life, its many-sided interests of Art, 
Letters, and Commerce, would need a large volume to 
itself. 



192 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



We have sought to sketch some of its essential features, 
and note a few of its most alluring charms. 

As one leaves it, bound westward for Ghent, through the | 
fine new suburbs, one carries away a memory of a delightful 
modern city, which nevertheless seems to preserve an 
atmosphere in keeping with its romantic history, and the 
beauty with which the great minds of architects, statesmen, 
and artists of the bygone ages have dowered it. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 

LOUVAIN, distant some fifteen miles eastward from 
Brussels, is but a dull place nowadays. So, at least, 
says one well-known writer, and we were not, there- 
fore, disappointed on reaching the ancient town to find that 
its chief present-day charm lies in its dulness, picturesque- 
ness, and general air of aloofness from the fret and fume of 
modern ways. But few who are sympathetic to old-world 
things would willingly miss the ancient town on the Dyle. 

To reach it we jolted over the pave, and out from Brussels 
through the Porte de Louvain on a bright summer morning. 
The country is less flat, more picturesque, and better wooded 
than along the road northward from Brussels to Malines ; 
and as one leaves Schaerbeek behind, one plunges from the 
city into a pleasant agricultural district of picturesque farms, 
scattered villages, and often tree-environed roads. Just 
beyond Dieghem — a noted pilgrimage resort, and famous 
for its Easter Monday kermesse — we were fortunate to find 
an archery meeting in progress — a survival of a sport for 
which, in olden days, Flanders was famous. 

In many of the towns and villages through which our 
pilgrim and vagrant way led us, there were archery clubs 
and guilds of archers, rejoicing some of them in high-sound- 
ing names ; but although many members were practising at 
the butts, or were to be seen on the way to the archery- 
grounds, we had not been fortunate enough to come across 
a contest. 

At a little village just past Dieghem — consisting, like 

many another in Belgium, of a straggling street of white 

cottages, with red or greyish-brown roofs and small front 

gardens, an herberg or tavern or two — we came luckily upon 

13 193 



194 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

an archery meeting, which, we were assured by the parish 
priest, who spoke excellent French as well as Flemish, was 
of " premier rang.'' In a field by the wayside, unenclosed 
save for a white rail where the cyclists' cinder-track ran, 
were gathered together a couple of score of mostly knicker- 
bockered men or gaitered youths, with a sprinkling of 
children. They stood round an asphalted circular space 
about 30 feet in diameter, in the centre of which rose a 
lofty scaffold-pole or roughly-trimmed poplar, tapering 
towards the top, and perhaps 60 feet in height. A little 
way from it stood the wooden archery-shed, outside which, 
but sheltered by the overhanging eaves, a knot of spectators 
were gathered to watch the contest. The pole was, high 
up, rigged almost like a ship's mast with slender spars, 
having attached to them a number of small wooden pegs, to 
to which were fastened gay-coloured tufts or bunches of 
worsted. To the very top of the pole was fixed a larger 
bunch than the rest, shaped not unlike a parrot, and inclined 
a little out of the perpendicular so that it could be easily 
seen when standing immediately below. These tufts of 
worsted are known as " pigeons," and are the marks at 
which the archers nowadays aim, who, in olden days, often 
shot at the real birds on the wing. 

We asked M. le Cure what was about to happen. His 
reply has since, in another connection, become historic. It 
was : AttendeZf et nous verrons — anglice, " Wait and see !" 

M. le Cure was particularly anxious that no harm should 
come to us, and so he invited us within the shelter of the 
overhanging eaves of the *' pavilion." The men and youths, 
with the long bows and quivers of arrows, who had fore- 
gathered for the prize shooting and had been given numbers 
to be followed as the order of proceeding, then stood back a 
little distance from the pole, and No. i advanced quite close 
to it ; and after, with what would seem over-elaboration of 
care, fitting an arrow to the string, let fly into the air at one 
or another of the *' pigeons " of worsted, whose gay colours 
looked all the gayer in the brilliant sunshine. The arrow 
appeared to scrape one of the ** pigeons," but failed to dis- • 
lodge it, and the disappointed archer, with a look of disgust 
at the arrow as it winged its way high above the pole, to fall 
a moment or two later with a " plob " on the ground, made 
way for another competitor. Then the reason for the two 



I 



LOU VAIN AND WATERLOO 195 

or three big-hatted urchins, who had been chasing one 
another about, became apparent. One of them darted for- 
ward almost ere the arrow fell to the ground, and picked 
it up for future use. They are blunt, but could doubtless 
give a very nasty blow in falling were the " caddies' " heads 
not protected by these broad-brimmed hats with thickly- 
padded crowns. 

The ** pigeons" need to be hit forcibly and fair and square 
to be dislodged, and to bring them down is the aim of the 
rival archers, who may be all members of one society com- 
peting against one another, or members of some guild (often 
called after the patron saint of archers, St. Sebastian) com- 
peting against those of another guild. 

It is not easy to imagine the excitement which this rivalry 
arouses. Lusty " bravos " and cheers reward the good 
shots of the competitors, and the fall of each *' pigeon " is 
eagerly noted. 

" It will continue, maybe, till sundown," explained M. le 
Cure as we mounted our bicycles at the end of an hour and 
after a draught of pale Belgian beer at the " pavilion." 
"You must not forget, messieurs, it is a great national 
sport ; that it is an ancient institution, some six or seven 
hundred years old " — and then, as though fearing his dates 
were extravagantly remote, he added, with an almost apolo- 
getic smile and a wave of his hand, *' at least, so I have 
read." 

Afterwards, when we returned to Brussels we learned 
more of this ancient sport, and how at old-time Bruges 
there is a Society of St. George of Crossbowmen, who, in 
the month of February in each year, hold a strange and 
ancient festival, known as the Hammenkens feest. The com- 
petition takes place in a large room, where a target is set up 
divided into numerous spaces, which are each of them 
marked with the name of some dish forming an item of the 
feast to follow. The competitors, in a sense, construct their 
own menu ; for according to the space one's cross-bolt hits, 
so one's viands. In the centre of the target is the figure of 
a monkey, the reward for hitting which is the right to select 
any dish one pleases. But one is by no means allowed to 
eat in peace after winning a dish, for should one of the 
crossbowmen hit a certain *' dish " on the target, and 
another competitor following him hits the same mark, the 



196 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

former has to resign his seat to the latter. Under such 
circumstances it is possible that " digestion does not wait 
upon appetite." 

Saventhem is but a mile or little more from Dieghem along 
the Louvain road. Its quaint parish church will always 
attract visitors by reason of its great possession — the Van 
Dyck, the subject of which is St. Martin dividing and giving 
his garments to the poor. It is not one of this artist's 
greatest works, but is interesting, and of considerable 
value. It has suffered somewhat, we fancy, from the work 
of restoration the picture underwent in 1902. 

The most usual road to Louvain lies through Cortenberg 
and Velthem. It is picturesque, and more interesting than 
many Belgian roads, but there is nothing of special note by 
the way until the approach to Herent, near which is the 
important church of the former abbey of Vlierbeek. 

Louvain, in Flemish Louven, or Loven, is still a large 
town of close upon 50,000 inhabitants, and the seat of a 
bishopric. A view from the tower of Ste. Gertrude shows 
it to be, as one indeed suspects on entering it, rather less 
flat than most Flemish towns, and, in its general character- 
istics, reminding one both of Ghent and Bruges. Like 
many another city of the Low Countries, its zenith was 
reached in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and its 
decline was rapid and complete. In Louvain of to-day it 
would be difficult for anyone unacquainted with the history 
of Flanders and the Netherlands, and of the city itself, to J 
imagine it the relic of the "great town of upwards of ' 
200,000 souls, the seat of a University having 6,000 students, 
and famous down till the seventh century, noted for its 
weaving industries, and throbbing with the commercial life 
of the Middle Ages." All that has passed away, leaving 
the once proud city shorn of three-fourths of its population, 
nearly all its industries, and most of its fame other than that 
attached to the undying past. 

Now, as one cycles into it across fields that were once the 
site of its outlying suburbs, through its ramparts converted 
into promenades, and streets which have the air of but . 
partial life and of almost suspended animation, one realizes j 
that it is here, as in many another Belgian town, the past 
that counts, and not the present. The name itself gives 
some idea of its ancient character, Loo signifying a wooded 



^ 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 197 

hill, and Veen, or Vain, a marsh. It was near here that the 
famous Emperor Arnilf defeated the insurgent Normans 
in 8gi ; and from very early times the place had an import- 
ance which ultimately caused a line of Counts to make it 
their principal residence. These latter grasped the lands 
forming the Duchy of Lower Lorraine, and ultimately 
assumed the title, at the end of the twelfth century, of 
Dukes of Brabant. 

In the fourteenth century it had become so commercially 
prosperous a place that one authority states (though we 
think there must be some exaggeration) that there were no 
less than 2,400 factories in the city, which owed its chief 
wealth to the weaving industry. 

Those who seek for the architecturally picturesque will 
not be disappointed. In the more ancient and narrow 
streets many " bits " for ** Kodaker " and artist alike are to 
be found ; and the banks of the Dyle remind one of both 
Malines and Bruges, with their jumble of ancient roofs and 
quaint, unperpendicular walls of houses which seem, many 
of them, desirous but to slip into the oblivion of the turbid 
waters washing their foundations. 

Though there are a Cathedral and several large and 
interesting churches at Louvain, it is the beautiful Late 
Gothic Hotel de Ville, rivalling that of Brussels in beauty, 
and almost unnatural in its elaboration, that attracts most 
tourists and students. Erected in the centre of the town, 
that had nearly three centuries before been encircled '* by a 
strong wall upon which were forty towers," b}'' Matthew de 
Layens in 1447-1463, it is said to have been commenced on 
the Thursday after Easter Day, and occupied fifteen years 
in the building. This wonderfully ornate building — indeed, 
some critics are inclined to point out this particular feature 
as its chief fault — is a mass of turrets, pinnacles, statues, 
dormers, canopies, tracery, and quaint and delicate orna- 
mentation, and yet it is stated to have cost no more than 
32,750 florins — even making allowance for the difference in 
the value of money, one would think an impossibly small sum. 

The building consists of three lofty stories, each of them 
containing ten pointed windows in the principal fa9ade, 
surmounted by a steep roof surrounded by an open balus- 
trade. Although so architecturally rich, it is one of the 
smallest buildings of its kind in any city of the Low 



198 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Countries of the importance of Louvain. Its dimensions 
are — length, 113 feet; width, 41 feet ; height, 73 feet to the 
parapet. Six slender and elegant octagonal turrets crowned 
by open spires rise from the corners and spring from the 
centre of the gables, giving a dignity and richness to the 
elevation and silhouette of the building. The three different 
fa9ades are lavishly adorned with sculptures. 

Unfortunately, time and weather found in the intricate 
and delicate tracery and carvings of this wonderful Hotel, 
de Ville a peculiarly sensitive material upon which to work 
destruction. So great was the decay by the later part of 
the eighteenth century that steps were taken for the resto- 
ration of the exterior. This was commenced in 1829, ^^<^> 
although the work was stopped for a time in 1842, the 
serious damaging of the western gable by lightning in 1890 
caused a new series of renovations to be undertaken, which 
have proceeded more or less ever since. The total sum 
spent during the last century on restoration must have 
been immense. The work as a whole may be admitted to 
have been well and carefully done, but of necessity some of 
the modern work compares unfavourably in beauty with the 
old that it in parts replaces, and is hard — a failing only time 
can remedy. 

It would be difficult to describe in any detail the variety 
of the carvings upon the fagades. The brackets bearing 
the statues in the niches, which were restored by Willem 
Goyers and others, are decorated with almost completely 
detached reliefs depicting scenes from Old and New Testa- 
ment history, shown in some instances with quaint medieval 
coarseness of detail and conception. They are arranged in 
chronological order, commencing at the lower stage, and 
continuing in each tier from left to right. There are no 
less than 280 niches for statues, and it would appear that 
until after the work of restoration the whole of them had 
never been filled with figures. They add very materially 
to the richness and beauty of the facade, as anyone who 
may have seen the building when many of the niches in the 
end fagade were unoccupied will remember. 

The statues all represent persons identified with, and 
prominent in, the history of Louvain. Among those in the 
lower tier most easily distinguishable are Quentin Matsys, 
Pope Adrian VI., Erasmus, Justus Lipsius (the famous pro- 



LOU VAIN AND WATERLOO 199 

fessor and lecturer at Louvain University in the early years 
of the seventeenth century), Stuerbout, Matthew de Layens 
(the architect of the building), Pope Martin V., Elzevir (the 
printer), and others. 

The flight of steps by v^hich one enters the building date 
only from the early part of the eighteenth century. The 
ancient wrought-iron parapet was the work of Quentin 
Matsys. 

The interior we found, as do no doubt most people, in a 
measure disappointing. Many of the apartments are now 
fitted up in modern style, and have furniture in keeping, 
and the pictures decorating the various rooms and ceilings 
are many of them modern, though far from uninteresting 
or poor. 

The ceilings of most of the rooms which are shown to 
visitors, however, are handsome. That of the Salle des 
Marriages, on the first floor, which is of chestnut, is finely 
carved, with the corbels and bosses enriched with subjects 
taken from the New Testament. The Salle Gothique also 
has a beautiful ceiling, and contains some interesting 
paintings by Hennebicq, illustrating scenes in the history 
of the town, with portraits of notable citizens. There 
is a small museum in which we noticed some good portraits, 
a triptych, "The Triumph of Christ," by Michel Coxie ; 
two triptychs by that notable Louvain master, Jan van 
Rillaer the Elder, and an "Adoration of the Magi," by 
Pieter J. Vernaghem. 

From the windows of this Hotel de Ville, in 1378, during 
one of the many insurrections of the weavers — who seem 
always to have been a turbulent class — thirteen nobles who 
were magistrates were thrown, and their bodies caught 
upon the pikes of the awaiting mob, and afterwards hacked 
to pieces and paraded round the town with a ferocity on a 
par with that shown by the French revolutionaries. 

The fine, oak-beamed roof of the Salle de Pas Perdtts, 
with its quaint staircase, and historic memories and 
atmosphere of a bygone age, should not be missed. The 
roof (or at least the carved corbels upon which it rests) 
dates from 1448. 

As we have said, Louvain possesses several fine and 
interesting churches, and of these the late Gothic and 
spireless building of St. Pierre, opposite the Hotel de Ville 



200 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

on the Grande Place, is the most important. Exteriorly, 
except to the expert student of architecture, it scarcely 
gives promise of its beautiful interior, although the propor- 
tions of this cruciform structure are exceedingly impressive. 

The church is nearly 334 feet in length, about 82 
feet in breadth, and of Kke height, and originally it 
had two immense towers at the west end, long ago 
destroyed by fire and never replaced. The stone model for 
these, by Josse Matsys, is to be seen in the museum of the 
Hotel de Ville. The general effect of this fine church is 
considerably spoiled by the close proximity of the houses. 

The present church, which was begun somewhere about 
1430, or shortly before the Hotel de Ville, stands on the site 
of an eleventh-century building, and was finished in the 
early years of the sixteenth century. The western tower was 
denuded of its wooden spire during the fierce storm of 1606, 
and this has not been replaced. One cannot help regretting 
the ugly wooden bell turret at the crossing which, to 
our mind, nowadays only serves to mar the exterior. On 
entering the building we find, as in the case with the cathedral 
at Antwerp, St. Pierre shows the continuous impost on 
its piers ; though these are apparently of somewhat later 
date ; and the pier mouldings have a rectangular character 
in keeping. Much of the open lattice-work tracery of the 
triforium, which is of a somewhat unusual character, though 
resembling that of Malines, is very beautiful, and is Flam- 
boyant in character. One notices with satisfaction that the 
noble simplicity and harmonious proportions of this great 
and inspiring church have escaped belittlement by one of 
the black and white marble screens which are so common a 
feature in the choirs of many Belgian churches. 

Although the original and highly decorated rood-loft, 
dating from about 1450, which spans the eastern arch of 
the crossing, is preserved and forms a splendid piece of 
Flamboyant work in stone and gilding, it has unfortunately 
been tampered with, and has in the process lost much of its 
raison d'etre and symbolical significance. It supports a 
large Crucifix, and above the arcade of three wide and flat 
ogee arches, which are cusped in a florid manner with 
carvings that appear to ripple along the inner edges, is a 
sculptured parapet containing figures of the Saviour, the 
Virgin, the Twelve Apostles, bearing the various instru- 




. z 



LOU VAIN AND WATERLOO 201 

merits of their martyrdom, and others of the Doctors of 
the Church. Above the arches themselves are ogee-shaped 
hoods and finials. It should be mentioned that formerly, 
probably until the period of the French Revolution, the side 
arches supporting the back of the loft contained two altars 
and reredoses ; the entrance being closed by tw^o gates of orna- 
mental ironwork. Unhappily, the removal of this consti- 
tutes only a portion of the vandalism (perpetrated, some 
aver, by the ecclesiastical authorities themselves) which has 
been so detrimental to the church, and included the de- 
molition of sedelia, the high altar, and other removals of a 
like regrettable character which served to destroy in a great 
measure the beauty and character of the choir. Fortunately, 
the upper portion of the screen and loft are much as they 
originally were, and the feature remains one of the best 
examples of Flamboyant Late Gothic work in Belgium and 
perhaps even in Europe. 

The famous Tabernacle for the reception of the Reserved 
Sacrament, of which there is so excellent a drawing in the 
well-known work of John Coney * stands under the last arch 
to the north side of the choir. It forms one of the most 
wonderful and elaborate examples in Belgium. Is is nearly 
fifty feet in height, and is literally a mass of crocketed 
pinnacles and the ornamentation upon which artists of the 
fifteenth century seemed to love to expend time, thought, and 
ingenuity. It was constructed from the designs of Matthew 
de Layens, the architect of the Hotel de Ville. 

The whole of this beautiful church well repays careful 
scrutiny and study. But the most casual of visitors should 
not miss seeing the wonderful central window of the fa9ade, 
with its unusually deeply recessed jambs, and the beautiful 
Renaissance case to the carved organ which is placed above 
the arch opening to the choir aisle from the north transept. 

In the various chapels are to be seen several pictures 
of considerable interest, and other relics of former days. 
The old stained glass in the first chapel on the south side 
should be noted, as the colouring is fine and mellow. The 
triptych of Jan van der Baeren, dating from about 1594, the 
subject of which is the " Martyrdom of St. Dorothea," is also 
worth attention, chiefly on account of the interesting con- 
temporary views of Louvain. 

* " Beauties of Continental Architecture." 



202 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The merely curious, and those for whom legend and 
romance have attractions, will look with interest upon the 
large black Byzantine crucifix in the south aisle, on which 
the figure of Christ wears an ancient red velvet robe, reach- 
ing to the feet, embroidered with stars and tongues of gold. 
It is probably eleventh or twelfth century work, and is 
to this day greatly venerated because of the story which 
attaches to it, that a thief who long ago broke into 
the church intending sacrilege was seized by the figure 
and held until the authorities discovered him. 

In several of the chapels there are interesting ambries 
which should not be overlooked. The fittings, including 
locks, hinges, etc., are evidently original, and probably date 
from the fifteenth century. The air-holes to these cupboards 
or recesses are particularly interesting, as they are shaped 
like the Crown of Thorns. 

In the ceiling of the fourth chapel are the quite recently 
discovered frescoes, from which the whitewash has been 
cleaned off. They are curious and interesting, and should 
be studied. 

The famous works of Dierick Bouts are placed in the 
ninth chapel (the first beyond the high altar). "The Last 
Supper " is the centre picture of a triptych, the two wings 
of which are unhappily lacking. The right one, represent- 
ing the Feast of the Passover and Elijah in the Wilderness, 
is now in the Berlin Museum ; and the left, representing 
the Gathering of the Manna, and Abraham and Melchizedek, 
at Munich. The work was originally painted for the 
Louvain members of the Confraternity of the Blessed 
Sacrament, a body which in the Middle Ages in various 
countries commissioned a good many works of religious art 
having that subject. The fragment of the picture as seen 
here, shorn of its two wings, has lost, of course, much of its 
mystical significance, but deserves careful study on account 
of the portrait of the donor (the figure by the doorway) and 
his attendant, and the finely-painted Gothic architecture. 

The other triptych by the same artist (an unpleasant 
subject), depicting the " Martyrdom of St. Erasmus," is in 
the same chapel. 

The pulpit in this church, by Josef Beyer (once in the 
abbey at Ninove), is one of those over-elaborate erections 
in which the wood-carvers of the eighteenth century of 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 203 

Belgium especially delighted. The front of it depicts the 
conversion of St. Paul,* with his horse stricken to the 
ground ; the back the repentance (or denial) of St. Peter, 
with the cock crowing. The latter subject would appear 
upon consideration somewhat to lack appositeness in a 
church dedicated to the saint. 

In the Rue de Namur, by which the University is reached 
from St. Pierre, still stand several ancient, and, on the whole, 
well-preserved, houses. 

Originally the Halles, erected in 1317 as a warehouse for 
the wealthy and powerful Clothworkers' Guild, the Univer- 
sity was founded in 1426. The upper story of this not very 
inspiring building, which has seen many vicissitudes and 
undergone various alterations, additions, and renovations, 
was added in 1680 ; but the Gothic arches and pillars of the 
basement floor still afford some evidence of the taste and 
beauty of the original building. 

The University was, when at the height of its fame, 
looked upon as being among the most noted of its kind in 
Europe, and its reputation, though it steadily declined from 
about the middle of the seventeenth century, was consider- 
able till the end of the eighteenth. Indeed, so highly were 
its rewards for learning anciently esteemed that no one 
could hold in the Austrian Netherlands any public appoint- 
ment who did not possess a Louvain degree. This seat of 
learning was suppressed by the French Republicans. 

It was reopened in 1817 by the Dutch Government, but 
seventeen years later from various causes (the opposition of 
the clergy to its control by the Dutch being one), it was 
once more closed. It was shortly afterwards revived as a 
free Catholic University, maintained by the Bishops, and 
without State control. Nowadays its students number 
from 1,500 to 1,600. 

The Library of the University, which was founded in 
1724, is a fine and extensive one, containing upwards of 
150,000 volumes, which include some fine manuscripts and 
valuable early printed books. The building is adorned with 
much good wood-carving, and contains a huge sculptured 
group by Geerts, the subject of which is *' The Flood." 

Though none of the churches in Louvain except that of 
St. Pierre are of any great note or importance, if time allows 
* Some writers incline to the belief that this figure is one of St. Norbert. 



204 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the visitor will not have cause to regret an hour or two spent 
in visiting St. Michael's, which stands at the end of the Rue 
de Namur and distant from the University only a couple of 
hundred yards ; Ste. Gertrude's, which lies in quite the 
opposite direction northward along the Rue de Malines and 
stands close to the Porte of the same name; and the 
Dominican church of Notre Dame close by. 

The first-named church (St. Michael) is chiefly interesting 
as a good, and perhaps one might almost say one of the 
most striking examples of the work of the architects who 
were responsible for the Belgian baroque style. There is 
nothing, however, of any great interest to take one into the 
interior, although that is pleasing and well-proportioned. 

Of Ste. Gertrude's, too, formerly the church of an abbey, 
the exterior presents the chief interest. It is an elegant and 
well-proportioned building, very much hemmed in by houses, 
consisting of a nave and apsidal choir ; aisleless and under 
one roof. The western tower is elegant and well-propor- 
tioned, and is crowned with a very tasteful fretted parapet, 
from the four corners of which rise octagonal turrets with 
pinnacles, and from the centre a pleasing octagonal spire, 
pierced the whole way up vertically, and crocketed. The 
piercing conferring upon it an additionally light and elegant 
appearance. 

Of the interior it is not necessary for us to give any 
detailed description. In the lights of the clerestory one can 
trace an element akin in character to that of the late 
English Perpendicular work; and in the jambs of the 
windows lighting the chapel on the north side of the choir 
there is a distinct trace of the Renaissance spirit. 

The chief charm of the church, however, to the ordinary 
visitor will undoubtedly be the famous and interesting choir 
stalls, of which there are two ranks. These are of oak so 
richly and elaborately carved as in a large measure to merit 
the claim which is advanced for them that they represent 
some of the finest examples of wood-carving in the whole of 
the Netherlands. The date of this beautiful and interesting 
work, which was done by Matthew de Waeyer by order of 
Pierre Was, the then superior of the abbey of Ste. Gertrude, 
is 1540. The carvings ornamenting the backs of the upper 
row of stalls depict scenes in the History of Religion, some 
of them quaint, and of deep antiquarian interest. The 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 205 

subjects of the " misericordes " are taken from events in the 
lives of Ste. Gertrude and St, Augustine. 

There is a triptych of ** The Crucifixion " by Michel Coxie, 
and an interesting reliquary dating from the sixteenth 
century amongst the treasures of this church, which has 
suffered materially by the alterations it has undergone, 
especially by the removal of the rood-screen, finally done 
away with (after "tinkering" at various periods) in 1848. 

Hard by Ste. Gertrude, amid a wilderness of narrow, and 
nowadays much-deserted streets, stands the church of the 
Dominicans dedicated to Notre Dame and built between 
1230 and 1260. It is a rather interesting example of the 
many churches which throughout Europe were about the 
middle of the thirteenth century founded by the Preaching 
Friars. It is of grey stone, coloured by age, and has a 
simple impressiveness in its goodly proportions which 
renders it attractive. Unfortunately the interior, which 
under any circumstances, we think, would owing to struc- 
tural reasons be less pleasing than one would anticipate 
from the outside view and particularly interesting western 
elevation, has been much spoiled by paint and whitewash. 

Those who are interested in medieval religious founda- 
tions will do well to spare time when at Louvain to visit the 
ancient Abbaye de Pare of the Premonstratensian Order,* 
which lies just outside the walls on the road we shall soon 
be taking along the banks of the Dyle to Weert St. Georges, 
on our way to Waterloo and back to Brussels. 

This fine abbey, which was founded in 1129, ^^^ was 
dissolved in the last decade of the eighteenth century 
during the French Revolution, was reinstituted in 1836, 
affords excellent example of a great monastic institution 
to-day much as it was centuries ago. The outer court is 
rendered picturesque by the farm buildings which surround 
it ; whilst the inner contains the dwellings of the canons. 
The interiors of the main buildings have many handsome 
rooms in the style of the early part of the eighteenth century, 
and on the walls are hung some excellent and interesting 
pictures by Verhaghen, Duplessis, Ernest Quellin, and Coxie. 

* Or White Canons. This order was founded in 1120 by Norbert, a 
monk at Prdmontr^, near Laon. The order ultimately spread widely 
throughout England. — C. H. 



2o6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The church is interesting, and contains some good wood 
carvings by Pieter Jos. Verhaghen. 

A few hours even spent within such a community as that 
of the fathers of the Abbaye de Pare gives one a better idea 
of reUgious medievahsm, its pervading spirit, its raison d'etre, 
its influences, and its objects than many hours' study of 
books. 

As we left Louvain behind it is with a rather confused 
memory of charm and squalor. The exquisite Hotel 'de 
Ville and the fine Church of St. Pierre are in one's mind in 
conflict with many narrow and dirty streets through which 
we rambled in search of the picturesque. Streets in which 
children played in a state of clothing, or want of it, nearly 
bordering upon Nature, and where little appeared upon the 
surface to have been done as regards either repairs to the 
tumbledown houses or sanitation. The native brew, " Biere 
de Louvain " should, we think, after experiment be avoided. 
It is peculiar ! 

And yet we would not have missed Louvain. 

From Louvain to Waterloo, down the valley of the Dyle, 
past Heverle and Weert St. Georges, to Wavre, and thence 
across country to the famous battlefield, forms a delightful 
and charming summer's day ride, with vistas of landscape 
and river scenery, well-wooded heights, quaint villages, and 
the river life which is always interesting and picturesque. 

Near Heverle is the fine park and famous chateau of the 
Due d'Arenberg, dating from the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, and surrounded by charming grounds and gardens. 
The library, which contains upwards of 50,000 volumes, is 
famous, and well-known to all bibliophiles. It is probably 
one of the most valuable, as it is certainly one of the most 
interesting, private collections in Belgium. The chateau is 
not usually shown to visitors, but when the family are not 
at home anyone presenting credentials from the burgomaster 
of Louvain, or some official, will be probably permitted to 
see over at least the grounds and some of the more public 
apartments ; and the privilege is one which must give keen 
enjoyment to the student of architecture, the connoisseur, 
and to all interested in the domestic survivals of the past. 

From Weert St. Georges to Wavre, to which place the 
Prussians retreated after their defeat by Napoleon at the 
Battle of Ligny on June 16, 1815, is a pleasant ride of but 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 207 

some ten miles, from whence the direct road to Waterloo, 
distant about twelve miles across country (by way of La 
Hulpe) is taken. 

The roads one traverses in this district are most of them 
made over the battlefields of the 1815 and previous cam- 
paigns, and many of them are undoubtedly much as they 
were a century ago. Indeed, as one approaches the actual 
battlefield of Waterloo, with its great, almost flat, expanse, 
which was on the summer's day when we last saw it a 
waving sea of corn or fields of scorched brown grass, with 
here and there a clump or a few single trees, an isolated 
house or farmstead breaking the shimmering horizon in this 
direction or that, it was difficult to realize that here and 
around one the destinies of Europe had been settled by that 
Titanic struggle between Wellington and Napoleon. As 
one cycled along the narrow pave roads between the corn- 
fields towards the centre of the battlefield, and afterwards 
the highroad leading from Genappe to Brussels, passing 
first the famous wayside cabaret of La Belle Alliance, with 
the farm of La Saliere and the monument to the French on 
the opposite side of the road, and the ruins of the Chateau 
de Hougomont set amid a clump of trees a mile and a half 
away across the fields, the line along which Napoleon drew 
up in battle array was crossed. 

In a little while we had reached La Haie Sainte, and had 
passed through the gateways set in the whitey-grey plaster 
wall, which, however, looked dazzlingly white in the brilliant 
sunshine, into the courtyard of the farm itself, where on the 
memorable June 18 had fallen, to use the present occupier's 
own graphic words : " Frenchmen thick as flies gathering 
upon a piece of carrion." It was garrisoned during the 
battle by about 500 of the German legion under Von 
Baring, who fought most gallantly against desperate odds. 

" Go anywhere you like,'' said the pleasant, bronze-faced 
farmer ; and we went, camera in hand, and perhaps not 
altogether unmoved by the spirit of the place which had 
played so great a part in the fierce struggles of that day of 
long ago. Straight in front of us was the great barn, from 
the gloomy shadows of which first English and then French, 
and then English again, had poured a fire of musketry as 
the fortunes of the day waned or flowed for the combatants, 
into the attackers who stormed in through the great gate- 



2o8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

way of the courtyard, intent on capturing or recapturing . 
the position. Here on this summer's day in the straw on 
the floor of the barn were sleeping the farm hands, un- 
troubled, apparently, by memories of the scores who had 
lain there, dead or dying, on that dull day in June, whilst a 
hail of bullets poured in through the, riddled oaken doorway 
to embed themselves in the bodies of the defenders or the 
plaster and beams of the rough-built walls and roof. Of 
course, all visible bullets and those whose presence could be 
detected have long ago been extracted and bartered away 
as relics by the various owners of La Hate Sainte, but their 
marks are still distinguishable, like martins' holes in a cliff 
face, and, as one of the farm-hands said in answer to a 
question : " Doubtless in the old beams there are yet 
embedded bullets which have escaped discovery." 

In some of the outer walls of the farm were to be seen the 
bigger dents and holes made by the grapeshot and cannon- 
balls which had been rained upon the farm for so many 
hours during the fiercely -fought day. 

Of the domestic buildings of La Hate Sainte^ probably 
the greater part are reconstructions, as undoubtedly the 
main building was fired, and at least partially burned, 
during the battle. But as a whole, just as is the case with 
Hougomont to the south-west, and the farm of Mont St. 
Jean further along the Brussels road, the remains are 
substantially as they were a hundred years ago, making 
due allowance for necessary repairs and partial recon- 
struction. 

It was Donzelot's division, which had come up too late 
to support the early cavalry attack upon the Allies' centre, 
which was ultimately directed by Ney to advance against 
La Hate Sainte. As a prelude to the attack, a furious can- 
nonade was opened upon it, the ammunition of the defenders 
was soon exhausted, the buildings were on fire, and Major 
Von Baring, with the utmost reluctance, was forced to order 
the handful of his remaining forces to retreat through the 
garden. 

With heroic bravery the Major and his officers stood at 
their post until the French had actually broken through the 
gate and entered the house, and only when further resist- 
ance would have been certain death did they retreat to the 
line of the Allies. 



^ 




LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 209 

Before retreating and the exhaustion of ammunition, 
efforts had been made to extinguish the fire by pouring 
water from the horse-pond in the courtyard and the well on 
to the flames out of camp-kettles, but the attempt was 
unsuccessful. 

Major Von Baring's account in brief of the defence of La 
Haie Sainte is of great interest, and we make no excuse for 
quoting from it. 

" Many of my men," he says, " although covered with 
wounds, could not be induced to keep back. * As long as 
our officers fight and we can stand,' was their invariable 
answer, ' we won't move from the spot.' I should be unjust 
to the memory of a rifleman named Frederick Lindau if I 
omitted to mention his brave conduct in particular. He 
had received two severe wounds on the head, and, moreover, 
had in his pocket a purseful of gold which he had taken 
from a French officer. Alike regardless of his wounds and 
his prize, he stood at a small side-door of the barn, whence 
he could command with his rifle the great entrance in front 
of him. Seeing that his bandages were insufficient to stop 
the profuse bleeding from his wounds, I desired him to 
retire, but he positively refused, saying, ' A craven is he who 
would desert you as long as his head is on his shoulders.' 
Fortunately, this brave fellow — who, after all, to the credit 
of the defenders of La Haie Sainte, was but a type — sur- 
vived, though he was taken prisoner, and, of course, deprived 
of his prize. 

*' As the passage of the house was very narrow, several of 
my men were overtaken before they could escape. One of 
these was the Ensign Frank, who had already been wounded. 
He ran through with his sabre the first man who attacked 
him, but the next moment his arm was broken by a bullet. 
He then contrived to escape into one of the rooms and 
conceal himself behind a bed. Two other men fled into the 
same room, closely pursued by the French, who exclaimed : 
* Pas de pardon a ces brigands verts !'* and shot them down 
before his eyes. Most fortunately, however, Frank remained 
undiscovered until the house again fell into our hands at a 
later hour. As I was now convinced that the garden could 
not possibly be maintained when the enemy was in posses- 
sion of the house, I ordered the men to retreat singly to the 
main position of the army. The enemy, probably satisfied 
with their success, molested us no further." 

* The men wore green uniforms. — C. H. 
14 



2IO THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

The owner of La Hate Sainte is a great dairyman, and in 
his parlour, as we drank glasses of fresh, rich milk and ate 
the bread and cheese which his wife hospitably pressed 
upon us, we were shown, with not a little pride, a glazed 
case containing the medals which the milk of his fine herd 
of cows, which grazed upon a thousand graves in the rich 
fields of Waterloo, had brought him at various shows and 
exhibitions. 

From La Hate Sainte to the famous Cross Roads is but 
a few hundred yards, and when one has reached them (near 
by stands the famous Lion Monument), one is practically 
in the centre of the area over which the battle was fought. 
From the top of the pyramidal mound hard by the Cross 
Roads one can gather, either by means of a good map or by 
listening to the somewhat flamboyant, though quite inter- 
esting, explanations offered by the English or the Belgian 
guides, who hold forth from early morn till dewy eve in the 
tourist season to groups of interested visitors, not only the 
chief points at which the battle was fiercest, but also the 
dispositions of the French and English forces at the com- 
mencement, during the progress, and at the close of the 
memorable day. 

A French writer. Colonel Charras, in his volume — " Le 
Campagne de 1815 " — published many years ago, summed 
up his opinion of the battle in the following words : 

** Wellington, par sa tenacite inebranlable ; Blucher, par 
son activite audacieuse ; tout les deux pas I'habilete et 
I'accord de leurs manoeuvres, ont produit ce r^sultat." That 
is to say : *' Wellington, by his immovable tenacity ; 
Blucher, by his audacious activity ; both of them by the 
cleverness and concertedness of their manoeuvres, succeeded 
in producing the result." 

As we rode across the fields of ripe, waving corn, after a 
survey of the field of battle from the summit of the Lion 
Monument, to the historic Chateau de Hougomont, partly 
embosomed in ancient trees, some of which bordered the) 
narrow lane and overhung the lichen-stained and shadowed ! 
wall by which the main entrance is approached, larks were! 
singing high above us, and a more peaceful scene it would 
be difficult to imagine. Over the " fields which have been 
enriched by the best blood of five nations, and now yield an, 
abundant harvest to peaceful husbandry," had once swept, 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 211 

almost within the memory of many who dwell there, the 
warring battalions of fighting men engaged in one of the 
greatest conflicts of history. 

Hougomont is the Mecca of many pilgrims; but perhaps 
its true spirit, its atmosphere, its consuming interest, is only 
revealed in full to those who have studied its history, and 
who know its tragic and gallant story. To many who came 
the day we were last there it was evidently but a show place, 
to be scampered round, pryed into, and dismissed with the 
" How extraordinary !" ** Is that so ?" " You don't mean it !" 
by which, and similar phrases, the somewhat too loquacious 
and not too strictly accurate explanatory remarks of the 
" guide " were punctuated. A " guide," let us add, who 
seemed to have a genius for editing history to suit the pre- 
dilections of her hearers — were they English, American, 
French, German, or native born — and of varying her facts 
with an astonishing facility. 

For example, when pointing out the well in the courtyard 
(now blocked with rubble and earth, and overgrown with 
docks and nettles), she (the ** guide" was feminine) would 
say with tragic air, to the listening English, " Mesdames and 
messieurs, after the battle terrible and ferocious, were found 
600 Frenchmen and 200 English in the putt (well). Such 
was the bravery of the brav English they killed so many. 
Marvellous ! " And then a quarter of an hour later she would 
say, whilst explaining to a French party : '* There were 800 
English and 200 French found at the bottom of the putt at 
the finish of that terrible day, mesdames et messieurs." 
So is history made ! 

Of the original, and at the time of the battle very con- 
siderable, Chateau, or manorial farm-house, there is not — 
owing to the fact of its having caught fire on the late after- 
noon of the fight — a great deal remaining. A portion of the 
house near the main gateway, a few of the outbuildings, a 
fragment of the chapel, the wall surrounding the Chateau, 
and that of the garden behind which the brave defenders lay, 
is nearly all. 

What remains of the buildings, including the ruined 
chapel with its smoke-discoloured wall and crucifix in a 
wire-netting cage, bear many traces of the memorable siege, 
and the fierce fighting which here took place. During the 
day of battle it is estimated that not much less than 15,000 



212 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

men were engaged in the repeated attempts which were 
made to capture the Chateau. Several times bodies of the 
French (relics of whose presence in the shape of shako 
buttons and ornaments, metal trimmings from uniforms, 
pieces of guns, pistols, and swords, have been from time to 
time unearthed), gained an entry to the orchards and out- 
lying parts of the farm buildings, but failed to carry the 
main buildings. The loopholes, made by direction of 
Wellington himself, in the garden walls can still be some of 
them seen, as can also bullet and cannon-ball marks. 

Green turf now covers most of the area of the courtyard 
in which some of the greatest slaughter took place. Many 
of the trees forming the thick wood with which the old 
Chateau at the time of the battle was surrounded were cut 
down (never to be replaced) by the fierce cannonade of the 
enemy, and the answering fire from the English batteries on 
the northward heights directed against the advancing French 
attack. But the place, peaceful as it now is, even when 
seen upon a bright summer day, seemed, at least to us, to 
wear that indefinable air of underlying tragedy that one 
often finds associated with ancient and historic buildings. 

The old, bent peasant woman, who swept the flags outside 
the house with feeble arms, remembered the battle — so she 
said — though upon inquiry she could have been but a year 
or eighteen months old at most ! But she had a pride in 
this memory which caused her old dim eyes almost to 
shine, and we did not press this point of infancy home. 
Who could have done ? If we rob the aged of memory we 
often rob them of the last hold upon Hfe. And such a 
memory of death, heroism, noise unspeakable, tragedy, and 
slaughter ! 

From Hougomont back to the Cross Roads through the 
fields. Then a look in at the Hotel du Musee, where are 
gathered together many interesting relics (but one cannot 
easily separate any spurious there may be, from the many 
undoubtedly genuine), before taking the road once more to 
Brussels. 

This lies past the Ferme de Mont St. Jean, hard by 
which Wellington's reserves were mostly gathered. The 
farm itself is interesting, and is now much as it was on the 
night when, by the light of the flickering torches, fitful stars, 
and swinging lanterns, the wounded were carried in by 



LOUVAIN AND WATERLOO 213 

scores and hundreds, and laid in the barns, outhouses, and 
on the wet ground of the courtyard itself for succour. 
Mont St. Jean was less injured than either La Hate Sainte 
or Hougomont by the varying fortunes of the battle, and 
nowadays stands practically as it did when Wellington 
rode past it along the straight bare road we are travelling, 
on his way to the village of Waterloo after his historic 
meeting with Blucher at the Maison Rouge or Maison du 
Roi, near La Belle Alliance^ immediately after the retreat of 
the French had commenced. 

In the straggling village of Waterloo there is not much to 
detain one, although, of course, it was here that Wellington 
had his headquarters from the eve of the battle until the 
day following. In the church there is a fine bust of the 
Duke, by Geefs, and a large number of marble memorial 
tablets to the memory of British officers who fell. The 
building was thoroughly restored in 1855. Close by, in a 
garden, is a monument which we imagine seldom fails to 
arouse, as it did in us, quite a different emotion to that 
intended. It was erected to the memory of the leg of 
Lord Uxbridge, afterwards the Marquis of Anglesea, who 
commanded the British cavalry so gallantly at the battle, 
and underwent amputation of the limb immediately after 
the fight. The monument, which bears an amusing if 
appropriate epitaph, is shaded by a weeping willow. 

The eleven miles by road, which lie between Waterloo 
and Brussels, are through picturesque and, in places, well- 
wooded country, dotted here and there, at first by farm- 
steads, and afterwards, as the Capital is approached, by 
pretty villas and chateaux situated amid the woods of Forest 
and Uccle. 

One could scarcely enter Brussels by the south from a 
more favourable or more pleasant point than at the Porte 
de Bal. But a few hundred yards along the wide, tree- 
bordered Boulevard du Midi, and by turning to the right 
down the Boulevard du Hainault, one is, by that and the 
fine Boulevard d'Anspach, with its magnificent shops, 
taken, as it were, into the very centre of the best commercial 
life of the city. 

In a word, one stands once more in the heart of Brussels. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 

M ALINES is a town, if one may believe one's friends 
who have been to Belgium, generally overlooked at 
least by the cursory traveller. Situate in a fertile 
and well-watered district, Malines, or Mechelen, forms, as it 
were, the apex of a triangle of which the line between 
Brussels and Louvain forms the base. It can therefore be 
easily reached from either of the latter cities, but we our- 
selves took it whilst en route for Antwerp, as perhaps this is 
the most pleasant way to do. 

It lies midway between the Belgian capital and its 
greatest seaport, distant from Brussels some fifteen miles by 
road, affording a pleasant hour or so's cycle ride through 
picturesque and well-cultivated, if flat, country. The road 
is quite a good one, and many, indeed, who do not cycle, 
walk out from Brussels the seven miles to Vilvorde before 
taking the train. Vilvorde, an ancient and interesting town 
on the Senne, possessing an excellent school of horticulture 
and a parish church, dating from the fourteenth century, 
and containing some finely carved choir stalls, is quite well 
worth seeing. 

For English visitors at least, Vilvorde possesses an undy- 
ing interest, owing to the fact that it was here that William 
Tyndale, reformer and translator of the Bible, suffered 
martyrdom. Fleeing to the Continent, owing to persecution 
on account of his heretical doctrines in 1523, he completed 
his translation of the New Testament from the Greek in the 
same year, and began to publish it from Cologne, from 
whence, owing to persecution by the Romanists, he fled to 
Worms, where the publication of the New Testament was 
completed two years later. Before long copies of the Scrip- 
tures found their way to England, but most, in consequence of 

214 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 215 

the prohibitions issued against them, were destroyed, con- 
cerning which act Tyndale exclaimed : " They have done no 
other thing than I looked for, and no more shall they do even 
if they burn me also." Four new editions, however, rapidly 
found their way into England, notwithstanding the fierce 
opposition with which the Bible in English was met by 
Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and others. 

At Antwerp, where Tyndale was acting as chaplain to the 
British merchants settled there, he began in 1529 to publish 
the first four books of the Old Testament. He was, how- 
ever, soon afterwards arrested through treachery of a spy, 
and taken to Vilvorde, where he was cast into prison, and 
there remained for a period of two years. He was after- 
wards tried and condemned as a heretic. On October 6, 
1536, he was chained to the stake, strangled, and then his 
body burned to ashes. His last words were : " Lord, open 
the King of England's eyes." 

His translation of the New Testament, which was quite 
independent of that of Wycliffe, forms the basis of the 
Authorized Version, and it is a remarkable fact, as though 
the prayer of the dying man was heard, that within a year 
after his martyrdom the Bible was published throughout 
England by royal command, and appointed to be placed in 
every church for the use of the people ; in most, if not all 
instances, becoming one of the chained books nowadays so 
much treasured by churches possessing them. 

A little off the main road, between Vilvorde and Weerde, 
from which latter place the huge tower of the Cathedral of 
Malines, four miles distant, becomes visible, lie two inter- 
esting houses connected with famous Belgian artists. The 
first is the farm-house of Dry Toren, near the village of 
Perck, once the residence of David Teniers the younger, 
whose body was buried in the village church in 1690. The 
second is near the village of Ellewyt, which lies some two 
miles to the right of the main road, where stands the old 
Chateau of Steen, the summer residence of Rubens in 1635, 
having been purchased by him for the then large sum of 
93,000 florins. 

The approach by road to Malines is not without pic- 
turesqueness, and for the last four or five miles is dominated 
by the wonderful though never completed tower of the 
cathedral Church of St. Rombold. This ancient town of 



2i6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

medieval Mechlinia, which as early as the commencement 
of the tenth century became one of the possessions of the 
Bishops of Liege, though for many years it had been a 
portion of the Diocese of Cambrai in ecclesiastical matters, 
is situate on the tidal river Dyle, which, flowing through 
the town, by reason of its numerous arms gives it an almost 
Bruges-like character. 

The life of this ancient and most interesting town seems 
almost centred in the district hard by the railway-station. 
The rest of it seems but a sleepy place in comparison 
with the bustle and industrial life of the extensive work- 
shops, rendered necessary by the fact that at M alines inter- 
sect several of the most important lines of railway in 
Belgium — those of Liege, Louvain, Ostend, Brussels to 
Antwerp, Malines to St. Nicholas. 

In the early part of the thirteenth century the town, under 
the rule of the family of Berthold, who were apparently the 
hereditary episcopal stewards, gained an almost independent 
position for itself, as did so many Belgian medieval cities. 
But in 1332 the town, which had proved very rebellious to 
outside government, was sold to Count Louis of Flanders 
by the then Bishop, Adolphe de la Mark, and some years 
later, in 1369, it was incorporated with Burgundy, becoming 
in 1473 the City of the Grand Council, which was the 
supreme tribunal of the Netherlands. It was here that 
Margaret of York, after the death of her husband, Charles 
the Bold, took up her abode; and here also lived the 
children of Maximilian of Austria, one of them, Margaret, 
who died in 1530, becoming celebrated as the Regent of 
the Netherlands. When Margaret's successor, Maria of 
Hungary, in 1546 transferred her Court to Brussels, Malines 
was made the seat of an archbishopric, apparently as some 
compensation, and became the ecclesiastical capital of 
Belgium, which it remains to this day. 

The best way to see MaHnes is undoubtedly to proceed 
from the Place de la Station, along the Rue Conscience to 
the Porte d'Egmont, and by way of the Place of the same 
name across the picturesque and seemingly currentless 
Dyle, from which one gets a charming view well worthy 
of the attention of kodakers, and then by way of the Rue 
Bruel to the Grande Place, around which are grouped some 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 217 

charming sixteenth and seventeenth century gabled houses, 
with the ancient Cloth Hall, rebuilt at various times from 
1320 onw^ards, somew^hat on the lines of the Halles of 
Bruges. The rather fine statue in the centre of the Grande 
Place is of Margaret of Austria, and is the work of the 
native sculptor, Joseph Tuerlincks. 

The Hotel de Ville, which was commenced in the begin- 
ning of the fourteenth century, was entirely remodelled and 
largely rebuilt in 1715, and is, consequently, not of great 
architectural interest. The fine, though somewhat decayed, 
Vieux Palais, standing close by and somewhat isolated, is a 
Gothic building dating from the latter years of the four- 
teenth century. It was the old Schepenhuis, or the House 
of the Bailiffs, from 1474 to 1618, and the seat of the great 
Council to which we have already referred. It now contains 
the valuable municipal archives and the city library. One 
of the treasures of the former are the account-books of the 
city onward since the year 131 1. 

Undoubtedly the most interesting building in the town is 
the magnificent Cathedral dedicated to St. Rombold, one of 
the earliest Christian missionaries in the Low Countries, 
who suffered martyrdom on or near the site of the church 
on June 24, 775. This saint, who was the successor of 
Bishop Walraf by the command of an angel visitant, and 
who, according to the legend, resigned the see after the 
angel had appeared once more, giving him the command to 
do so, gave sight to the blind, relieved men of evil spirits 
possessing them, and, besides raising a young noble to life, 
did many other miraculous acts. He met his death while 
reproving a man for his sins. The latter turned upon the 
saint and killed him with a hoe, which thenceforth became 
St. Rombold's emblem. After his death, the legend goes 
that Rombold aided his beloved town when it was besieged, 
and restored sight and life to many people who were con- 
nected with the city. About the commencement of the last 
century no less than twenty-five paintings of scenes in the 
life of St. Rombold were found under the whitewash in one 
of the ambulatory chapels of the Cathedral. 

The magnificent and unfinished Late Gothic western 
tower which dominates the exterior is 324 feet in height, 
was commenced in 1452, and was intended by its architect 



2i8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

and builders to be the highest in Christendom — namely, 
550 feet, or more than 20 feet higher than that of Ulm. 

Unlike many edifices of the kind, the Cathedral of MaHnes 
does not lose in impressiveness or effectiveness on closer 
inspection ; but, on the contrary, one's admiration for its 
beauty and its noble proportions is increased by careful 
consideration of its elegance in detail, and, at least with 
students of architecture, this feeling is mixed with some 
surprise at finding so fine a work was commenced in the 
middle of the fifteenth century, and was not completed till 
towards the end of the sixteenth. It will be remembered 
by students that, at least in France and England, Gothic 
architecture had greatly declined by the middle of the fif- 
teenth century, and that neither in England nor France 
does our memory serve to bring to mind an example of 
ecclesiastical architecture of that date which compares in 
statehness and grace with this beautiful Cathedral of Malines. 
Of course, it must be admitted, however, that Gothic art 
achieved its latest triumphs in the erection of towers which 
are showy rather than utilitarian structures, and that the 
building of these was in itself a mark of decadence. 

The base of the vast mass of masonry which constitutes 
the tower is perforated for the great western entrance, and 
this feature should be specially noted. Somedetails regarding 
what is, in many ways, the most remarkable tower in the 
whole of Belgium may be interesting. Of the structure, which 
is in two stages, the spire was intended to form a third. Even 
the materials for it were brought on the ground, when in 
1583 the work was arbitrarily stopped by the Prince of 
Orange, who caused the stones which had been prepared 
for it to be taken to Holland and used in the building of 
the town of Willemstad. The two completed stages of the 
tower are divided by a parapet of pierced work, which marks 
the place of the platform between the buttresses. A similar 
parapet crowns the second stage, placed upon a cornice, 
and follows the form of the buttresses so as to constitute a 
very beautiful detail of the work. The windows have bold 
cusped and crocketed hood mouldings, and those of the 
lower story are very deeply recessed. The wall above 
these is marked by blind tracery and mullions in the Per- 
pendicular Style, as is the case in similar English buildings. 
The windows of the upper story rise from the lower parapet 



STORY OF M ALINES AND ANTWERP 219 

nearly to the cornice, and are divided both longitudinally 
and transversely by mullions and transoms, whilst above 
their heads appear blind tracery similar in character to that 
lower down in the tower. The whole is greatly enriched 
by the pinnacles and tabernacle work, the details of which 
are, it must be admitted, florid in character, but do not in 
any way spoil the composition of the whole. 

The church is a cruciform structure 306 feet in length, 
with the nave 8g feet in height and 40 feet wide ; and this 
great loftiness is such that, enormous as is the height of the 
tower, from some points of view especially, the latter seems 
by no means out of proportion to the rest of the church. 
Many parts of the building, including the tower, have been 
carefully restored ; and it is therefore difficult to describe, 
and, in some cases, to detect, with any great degree of 
accuracy, where the original work ends and the new begins. 

The church, as a whole, dates from the fifteenth century, 
and the richest part of the exterior is found at the east end, 
which was built from the year 1366 onwards till about the 
middle of the fifteenth century, when the apse was com- 
pleted in accordance with the original design. The chapels 
of the ambulatory or choir aisle and those of the east end 
project considerably beyond the buttresses, and do not 
merely fill up the space lying between them, as is the most 
common case in Belgian churches ; indeed, the whole part 
of this work is rather French in character, with deeply 
recessed windows, the crocketed pyramids with their carved 
finials, above which appears the light and elegant parapet. 
The chapels of the choir aisles show carved and moulded 
gables, crockets, and richly- wrought pinnacles, and the tracery 
in the windows is very fine geometrical work. Much of the 
latter is modern, but it has been carefully varied in design, 
and adds greatly to the beauty of the whole. The buttresses 
have high pinnacles, with statues placed under canopies on 
their fronts. 

On entering the church one is at once struck by the 
resemblance that the nave bears in several respects to that 
of the Church of St. Jacques at Antwerp. It was completed 
in 1487, or more than a century after the choir.* The 

* It is only right to point out that much uncertainty appears to prevail 
as to the dates of the diflferent portions of this cathedral. Van Gestal 
places the date of the completion of the choir in the year 1227, and the 



2 20 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

columns are round, having similar shaped bases, the latter 
having a water-holding moulding beneath a fillet and above 
a very bold torus. The great size of these piers is due to 
successive coatings of plaster, which have effectually hidden 
the stonework of bluish-grey hue ; also that of the arches. 
The last pillar on the north side of the nave and the arch 
which it supports has been cleared of the plaster, and now 
is seen in its original and far more slender dimensions. The 
red brick which fills in the vault of the apse had on the 
occasion of our last visit been exposed to view, and it is 
intended that the whole building shall eventually be cleared 
of encrustations of plaster, so that its full beauty and its 
more elegant proportions may be seen and appreciated. 
The capitals of the columns of the nave, it should be noted, 
are ornamented with rigid and hard carving, late in its 
character and contrary to the principles of good design, the 
foliage is not developed from the stonework of the capital 
itself, but is merely attached to it. The caps, however, 
which are octangular in shape, are well and gracefully pro- 
portioned to the piers which they surmount, both in respect 
of height and depth. The clustered columns at the crossing 
and lower walls of the transept are remains of the beautiful 
church which was finished in 1312, and burnt to the ground 
less than thirty years later. 

The work of rebuilding appears to have been carried on 
chiefly by the money raised on the occasion of the Papal 
Jubilee in the year 1451, and by means of funds produced 
by Letters of Indulgence granted by Pope Nicholas V. in 
1456 to those who should contribute towards the good 
work. Callixtus III. in 1458, and Pius II. in 1464, raised 
money in a similar way, the latter also giving a considerable 
sum out of his own revenues. ' 

Students who are interested in details of architecture will 
do well to pay attention to the tracery in the clerestory 
windows of the nave and choir. The northern end of the 
clerestory dates, some of it, from the fifteenth century. 

consecration of the church as 131 2. But it would appear that much later 
dates given by subsequent writers are probably more correct. 

There can be no doubt in the mind of any student that the building 
presents a typical example of fifteenth-century work. In support of this 
statement note the great arch beneath the tower leading into the nave, 
the circular columns, the lofty clerestory, the five-sided apse, with its 
processional path and radiating chapels, and the great length of the 
transept. — C. H. 



i 

1 




< 

B 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 221 

The pulpit, by Boeckstuyns of Malines, dating from 1723, 
is an example of those elaborate and fanciful *' allegories in 
wood " for which Belgian artists of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries were responsible, and the subject is 
variously stated to be the conversion of St. Norbert or of 
St. Paul. 

The church contains a considerable number of pictures, 
few of which, except the altar-piece in the transept, by Van 
Dyck, and the series of twenty-five coloured pictures, scenes 
from the life of St. Rombold, specimens of fourteenth or 
fifteenth century work, are of any great interest or value ; 
although the " Adoration of the Shepherds," by Erasmus 
Quellin, and " A Last Supper," by Wooters, are worth 
attention. 

The great art treasure of the church is the altar-piece by 
Van Dyck, which was originally painted for the high altar 
of the Church of the Recollects. It is undoubtedly one of 
the finest works of this master, having been painted by him 
after his return from Italy. The subject is the Crucifixion, 
and a dead Saviour is seen upon the Cross between two 
thieves, who are still alive and in agony. St. Mary Magda- 
lene is at the foot of the Cross, her facial expression be- 
tokening passionate grief. This figure is worth careful 
study because of the criticism passed upon the hair by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds ; who, it will be remembered, stated as 
his opinion that it was too silky-looking, and more like a 
fabric than human hair. 

As one stands before it one can but be conscious of the 
deep impression made by this fine work, in which the artist 
has certainly caught in a marvellous way the " atmosphere " 
accompanying the scene, and has succeeded in conveying 
it to the mind of the beholder. 

Whilst there is nothing else of special note in this Cathe- 
dral attractive to the ordinary sightseer, there is undoubtedly 
a good deal to reward the careful student in the details of 
its architecture. As a whole, the verdict must be that St. 
Rombold's is a very noble, spacious and impressive building, 
which in a large measure is worthy of the high ecclesiastical 
position that it holds among the cathedrals of Belgium. 

Amongst the other churches of Malines which call for 
notice is that of St. Jean, a Late Gothic structure possess- 
ing a well-proportioned western tower with an unusually 



222 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

picturesque outline. It is a cruciform church possess- 
ing a lofty chapel which opens from the eastern side of 
the north transept, with the choir terminating in an apse 
with four light windows full of geometrical tracery. The 
interior is severe and rather uninteresting. The columns of 
the nave are circular with plain capitals, and there is no 
arcading between the arches and the clerestory windows, 
which are filled with Flamboyant tracery. 

In the apse is to be found the large Renaissance altar- 
piece with pictures by Rubens, the subjects of which are 
**The Adoration of the Magi," "The Beheading of John 
the Baptist," and " St. John the Evangelist in the Cauldron 
of Boiling Oil." By many people this high altar-piece is 
considered one of the best of the painter's ecclesiastical 
works. The pictures on the outside of the wings are " The 
Baptism of Christ " and " St. John on the Island of Patmos 
Writing the Apocalypse." For this it is said that Rubens 
received i,8oo florins (about ^^175 English money), the 
receipt for which, in the artist's own handwriting, is pre- 
served in the sacristry, and the work occupied only eighteen 
days. There is a small picture of the Crucifixion below the 
altar-piece, also said to be by this master. 

It is interesting to note that one of the kings in the picture 
of " The Adoration of the Magi " is seen holding a censer, 
which distinguishes this picture from others which Rubens 
painted of the same subject. 

Originally there were seven other pictures beneath this 
great altar-piece in addition to the Crucifixion, but these 
were all carried off to France during the Wars of the 
Revolution, and were apparently not returned at the time 
of the general restitution of the works of art which was 
ultimately made to Belgium by the French authorities. 

The confessional-boxes are rather finely carved ; and the 
churchwardens' stalls by the pillars in the transept, the work 
of Nicholas Van Der Veeken, are worth attention, though 
only dating from the middle of the eighteenth century. 

The Church of Ste. Catherine, which lies to the north- 
west of St. Jean, is a much more interesting building, and 
is in the early fifteenth-century style. It possesses a central 
tower rising only one story above the roofs of the nave, 
choir, and transepts. The choir roof, which is of slate, and 
square, is interesting as being somewhat after the character 





GRANDE PLACE AND CATHEDRAL, MALINES 



STORY OF M ALINES AND ANTWERP 223 

of those seen on some of the Sussex and Kent churches in 
our own land. For the size of the church the interior is 
remarkably impressive, especially if one enters it from the 
eastern end. The nave arcade, which has short cylindrical 
columns ornamented with a single row of foliage on the 
capitals, is very pleasing. The waggon-shaped roof of wood 
over the nave, with tie-beams, should be noted, as should 
also the very beautiful traceried rose window at the west 
end of the south aisle. Ste. Catherine's provides a good 
example of the small cruciform town or parish church of 
the period, and for this reason alone deserves the attention 
of students. 

The very fine Church of Notre Dame, which is on the 
other side of the Dyle in the opposite quarter of the city, is 
a finely-proportioned Flamboyant church, built during the 
period between the commencement and end of the first half 
of the sixteenth century, and in many respects bears a strik- 
ing resemblance to the Cathedral. It was erected on the 
site of an ancient foundation dating from the middle half of 
the thirteenth century. We learn from an inscription which 
is to be seen on the north-east pier of the transepts that 
the first stone of the choir was laid in the year 1500 by 
Gilles du Bois. The chief points to be noted in the building 
are the open arcades in front of the passage, the columns in 
the choir with four slender shafts attached to their circular 
centres, with unusually fine carved foliage upon the capitals 
and the portal of the north transept. 

There are several fine pictures in this church, among 
them one may mention "The Last Supper," by Erasmus 
Quellin, which is surrounded by a Renaissance reredos of 
enormous size ; and, in the chapel behind the high altar, the 
famous "Miraculous Draught of Fishes," a finely-coloured 
picture with wings, painted by Rubens in 1618 for the Guild 
of Fishmongers. For beauty of colouring few of his pictures 
are more distinguished than this. 

But Malines does not rely alone for architectural interest 
upon its churches, fine though they be, for there are quite a 
large number of ancient domestic buildings remaining well 
worth seeing. But many of these are to be found stowed 
away in obscure corners of one or other of the almost 
deserted quays, or in by-streets leading from them. 

At the corner of the Rue des Vaches and Rue St. Jean, 



224 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

not far from the church of that name, is the former residence 
of Canon Busleyden, once the Mont-de-Piete and now the 
Academy of Music. It forms an interesting example of 
Gothic domestic architecture of the early sixteenth century, 
the gables of which are notable and the fine arcades of con- 
siderable beauty. The restoration which the house under- 
went many years ago was so judiciously carried out as to 
satisfy even the most critical of archaeologists. 

The Palais de Justice or Gerechtshof, which stands near the 
Place St. Pierre and nearly opposite the theatre in the Rue 
de I'Empereur, is a picturesque and interesting building, 
skilfully restored some thirty years ago. It was formerly 
the palace of Margaret of Austria, and from 1561 to i6og 
belonged to the Granvellas family, after which for more 
than a hundred and fifty years it was the seat of the Great 
Council. The older portions, which are in the Late Gothic 
Style, date from quite the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, and the fa9ade, which was built from 1517 to 1526, 
we found particularly interesting, as it is stated to be the 
earliest example of the Renaissance in Belgium. The 
interior is well worth a visit, as it contains some particularly 
interesting and fine chimneypieces as well as a few works 
of art of note. 

Other less known buildings of interest which are well 
worth discovering may best be found by taking the following 
route, having as a starting-place the Grande Place. Cross- 
ing the latter to its south-western corner and proceeding 
down the Bailies de Fer on the south, we come first of 
all to the Maison des Archers, an interesting house, although 
only dating from the middle of the eighteenth century. 
There is, however, a fine iron railing dating from the middle 
of the sixteenth century bordering the canal, which was 
vaulted over many years ago. The central bridge over the 
Dyle, built in the thirteenth century, should now be crossed, 
when, turning to the left, and proceeding along the Zoutwerf 
or Quai au Sel, one comes to several charming specimens of 
richly decorated Renaissance houses. One of them, known 
as In den Grooten Zalmm, dating from 1530, is the House 
of the Salmon, the Guild House of the Fishmongers. This 
was restored in the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
possesses a very interesting fa9ade and interior, the former 
having carved friezes, panelling, pilasters, and arcades, on 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 225 

which are sculptured sea gods and goddesses, fishes, and 
similar subjects. The so-called Lepelaer a little further 
along beyond two rather tumbledown timber houses, has 
some exquisite details in the Franco-Flemish style. 

It will now be easiest and most economical of time to 
take one of the by-streets on the right hand and strike into 
the Rue Notre Dame, and proceeding north-westwards to 
reach the Marche aux Grains, Here is the Maison de la 
Grande Arhalete, or the Guild House of the Crossbowmen, 
dating from the sixteenth century, but with a fa9ade erected 
at the commencement of the seventeenth. 

Along the Rue Haute stands the Porte de Bntxelles, the 
sole survival of the twelve ancient city gates. It has, how- 
ever, lost much of its original character owing to its having 
been rebuilt in the seventeenth century. 

A pleasant way to reach the other quays along the Dyle, 
on which here and there interesting houses are to be found, 
is to leave the Porte de Bruxelles on the left and proceed 
by the tree-shaded Boulevard des Capucines till one comes 
to the Porte d'Adeghemy from which point one is able 
to reach the waterside again by the second street on the 
left, and walking along by the Dyle, one comes to the 
Quai aux Avoines, or Haverwerf, on which there are two 
ancient and interesting houses overlooking the now almost 
deserted waterway with its Venetian-like posts sticking 
up in the water, to which anciently barges were moored. 
At the corner of the Rue de la Grue is the so-called Paradise, 
with its two painted reliefs of the Fall and Expulsion of the 
First Parents from Eden. Close by is the Maison de Diahle 
a fine timbered house of the sixteenth century, the front of 
which is full of quaint carvings, the pillars on either side of 
the door having a boy statuette holding a shield. On the 
sides of the windows of the first story appear satyrs and on 
the muUions a faun, all grinning. On the second tier are 
a series of nine quaint brackets, placed between the windows 
and carved with grotesque figures of warriors, a king and a 
queen, etc., whilst the verge board shows a seraph at each 
foot. 

Near by is another house, on the front of which is a curious 
carving of God and Christ, and the date i66g, which refers 
to the upper part. 

In the neighbourhood of these narrow waterways many 
15 



226 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

other ancient and too often, alas! ruinous buildings and 
fragments of Gothic and Renaissance architecture may be 
found by the enterprising explorer. It may truly be said, 
we think, that scarcely any city in Belgium is so rich as 
Malines in quaint buildings — Gothic, Renaissance, and what 
we call Jacobean houses. 

Malines has, of course, for centuries been celebrated for 
the exquisite lace which is manufactured in the city and 
environs. Some of the best of the ancient lace which the 
skilful fingers of long-dead dentellieres have produced is 
almost priceless, and even that of to-day is, much of it, very 
costly. 

In many of the houses of that quarter of the city which 
lies north-west of the Cathedral the dentellieres still work at 
their beautiful and fascinating calling. Old women, whose 
failing eyesight needs the reinforcement of spectacles perched 
upon the end of their noses, sit in the windows or in the 
courtyards of their dwellings, pillow and bobbins in front of 
them, and, with fingers scarcely less speedy or skilful than of 
yore, weave the intricate and exquisite lace in fine white 
threads from the pattern pinned upon the cushion in front 
of them. Many young girls, and even comparatively small 
children, are also to be seen in the villages on the outskirts 
of the city engaged in this beautiful industry. 

Unfortunately, one of the best of the older schools, situate 
in the Rue des Douze Apotres in the district of the Beguln- 
age has, of late years, met with less support than it deserves, 
and on the occasion of our recent visit we found the ancient 
lady who presides over the institution in dire distress con- 
cerning the bad times which had overtaken it. But although 
many of the girls had had to be turned off, and other pupils 
did not seem to be forthcoming, we saw some exquisite 
specimens of lace in process of making, including a beautiful 
couvre-pieds to be given as a wedding-present to one of the 
Bourbon princesses, the value of which, when completed, 
would be many hundreds of pounds. As a contrast to this, and 
also to a handkerchief-border priced at 2,000 francs, was an 
almost equally fine, though very narrow, strip of lace costing 
no more than 5 francs the metre, which would probably 
have fetched in Regent Street three times as much per yard 
at the very least. 

But if one wants to see lace-making under the most 




A COURTYARD, MALINES 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 227 

picturesque conditions, one should ride out a few miles 
beyond the city into the country, where in almost every 
cottage some member of the family seems engaged in the 
occupation. It is here that one finds in the summer-time, 
seated upon low stools at cottage doors or in gardens gay 
with homely flowers, the mothers and daughters of the 
family with the lace pillows on their knees, singing at their 
work the musical old " Song of the Lacemakers of the 
Bruges Country," which runs as follows : 

" Lorsque nous travaillons 
Ensemble nous chantons, 
Et a nos chants d'alldgresse 
Chassent notre Paresse. 

" Nous chantons le Seigneur, 
Et notre chant le prie ; 
Nous chantons en I'honneur 
De la Vierge Marie. 

" Sainte Anne nous chantons 
Maitresse, enfants prions 
Pour elle la couronne ; 
Elle est notre patronne." 

And as one passes along the highways and by-ways of 
Flanders, whenever the musical, though somewhat dirge- 
like, song comes to one upon the air, one knows that there 
are busy fingers flying backwards and forwards across the 
cushion, and that the bobbins are clicking a sharp 
accompaniment to the voices of the singers. 

From Malines on to Antwerp is but a trifle over an hour's 
riding for any save the least expert of cyclists, so good is 
the road. Poplar-bordered roads, flat and well-cultivated 
fields, with here and there a small town or scattered village, 
and now and again a vista of picturesque groups of peasants 
working in the fields, or the tower of a distant church, pro- 
vides scenery differing very little in character from what may 
be called a typical Flanders landscape. But some miles 
before one reaches the Porte de Malines, and, crossing the 
moat, passes through the ramparts into the city, one realizes 
that one is approaching a great town of ceaseless activity. 
And soon, as one cycles along the wide Chaussee des Ber- 
chem and Chaussee de Malines on one's way to the very 
heart of the city, one receives a vivid impression, be the day 
sunny (as it was in our case) or cloudy, of ceaseless life, 
activity, and of prosperity. 



228 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Antwerp, the ancient and ultimately successful rival of 
Bruges, and, in a manner, of Ghent, with a population of 
nearly 400,000, including its suburbs, is, one at once realizes, 
admirably situated for commerce, standing as it does upon 
the banks of the broad and easily navigable Scheldt, though 
fifty miles from the open sea. It has long been one of the 
great seaports of Europe, envied by Germany,* and used by 
her as an outlet for her overseas commerce, and, in a sense, 
is the great depot of all Belgian trade. It is the Naboth's 
vineyard of the German Chancellerie. 

Its population, with the exception of the 40,000 members 
of the foreign colony, about half of whom are Dutch, a 
quarter German, and, of the remainder, quite a number 
English, is Flemish. 

The history of the town as a place reaches back far 
into the seventh century. Destroyed by the Northmen 
towards the middle of the ninth century, Antwerp appears 
as the capital of a Margravate, or count ship, established as 
a protection to the German frontier against the then all- 
powerful Counts of Flanders, about the beginning of the 
eleventh century. The most celebrated of all these Mar- 
graves of Antwerp was the famous Godfrey de Bouillon, 
who, in 1095, sold Belgium, then a Duchy, to Albert, Bishop 
of Liege, to enable him to raise funds for the Crusade, one of 
the results of which was the taking of Jerusalem by assault 
on July 15, logg, and the proclamation of Godfrey de 
Bouillon as King. 

Favoured by its situation, so admirably adapted for the 
development of the town itself and of the commerce by 
which it was to be ultimately raised to its proud position in 
medieval and in modern times, its size and wealth greatly | 
increased at the close of the fifteenth century, when, as we 
have already seen, much of the trade of its great rival, I 
Bruges, was, for several reasons, transferred to it. But its 
progress prior to the fourteenth century was menaced and 
retarded by the very circumstances of its situation, which 
was afterwards to prove so advantageous. The wide river, 

* The proposed new fortifications of Flushing — much of the money for 
which is said, and we believe not without reason, to have been indirectly 
supplied by German capitalists — are the subject of considerable appre- 
hension in Antwerp commercial and shipping circles. That their con- 
struction would constitute a menace to its trade no one can doubt. — C. H. 1 



J 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 229 

easily navigated, exposed it to the attack of every piratical 
passer-by — Northmen, Scandinavians, Danes, by whatever 
name they were called — all at one period or another seem to 
have sailed their galleys up the wide, placidly-flowing Scheldt 
to attack and plunder the struggling town rising upon its 
banks. 

It was for this reason not until the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries, when affairs in Northern Europe became less 
disturbed, that Antwerp began to grow and give promise 
of its ultimate greatness. But the golden age of the city 
was the latter end of the fifteenth and earlier part of the 
sixteenth centuries, when, Bruges declining, from the causes 
which will be duly touched upon, Antwerp rose with 
almost meteoric suddenness to the first position as a trading 
port in the Low Countries. Its wide, deep, and compara- 
tively slow-flowing river rendered it more suitable for the 
increased size of the shipping of the new era that had then 
opened than the shallow and narrow canals and rivers of 
Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels. This fact enabled it, on the 
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, to monopolize the 
greater part of the new seaborne commerce, as well as that 
between the ports of Spain and Portugal and Central 
Europe, and for a long period the Scheldt became for the 
time what the Thames, the Clyde, the Mersey, and South- 
ampton Water have become in our own era. 

The Emperor Charles V. afforded the town powerful pro- 
tection, and during his time it became the most prosperous 
and wealthy city on the Continent, not even excepting 
Venice and Genoa, whose fame in the earlier Middle Ages 
was world-wide and unrivalled. 

A picture of Antwerp at the very height of its prosperity 
in the middle of the sixteenth century, when the small town 
had grown to a vast city of some 130,000 inhabitants, would 
have shown vessels alongside wharves, or moored in mid- 
stream, from every part of the then civilized world, and at 
one time an old writer states it was no unusual occurrence 
for a hundred vessels to arrive and depart daily. Here, too, 
were held those great fairs which, during the Middle Ages, 
served to attract merchants to the towns holding them from 
all parts, however distant, of the civilized world. Antwerp 
was even the scene of the banking operations of one of the 
famous Fuggers, the merchant princes of Augsburg, who 



2 30 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

ultimately died, leaving a fortune of nearly two million 
ducats, or, at a present-day valuation, a million and a 
quarter sterling. In the middle of the sixteenth century,* 
the spices and sugar alone which were imported into 
Antwerp from Portugal reached the enormous value of one 
and a half million ducats. Double this amount scarcely 
covered that of the silk and gold embroideries sent to the 
city from Italy ; and grain from the Baltic was imported to 
the value of one and a half million ducats ; French and 
German wine a million ducats more, and general imports 
from England totalled twelve million ducats, or, say, over | 
three million pounds. These figures will give some idea of 
the vast character of the trade of this medieval port, at 
which upwards of a thousand foreign commercial firms had 
by then, we are told, established themselves. From this 
centre flowed out many million ducats' worth of Flemish 
manufactured articles — cloth, carpets, linen, gold and silver 
wares, carvings, and raw flax. The high esteem in which 
these things were held in foreign lands will be easily under- 
stood when one remembers that such remote countries as 
Persia, India, and Arabia were customers of the merchant 
princes of Antwerp. 

The city's decline began with great rapidity soon after it 
had reached its zenith as a trading-port and commercial 
centre of the Middle Ages. After the destruction of churches 
and convents in 1566, in the reign of Philip II., by the 
iconoclasts, a bitter persecution instituted by the Duke of 
Parma was the cause of the immigration of thousands of 
industrious citizens and skilled workers from the country 
upon which Spain was seeking to plant a crushing, iron heel. 
Many of them, as we know, fled to England, and to them 
may be not improperly ascribed much of the stimulation 
which came to English commerce about this period, par- 
ticularly in the matter of silk and woollen factories, which 
were speedily established in various parts of the country. 

Antwerp suffered terribly from outrage and pillage by the 
cruel Spanish soldiery, which began in 1576 during the 
unsuccessful attempt of the southern provinces of the 
Netherlands to shake off the yoke of Spain. It was in the 

* Guicciardini, a learned Florentine, who died in 1589, and who was 
for some years Tuscan Ambassador in the Netherlands, is our authority. 
— C. H. 



i 




DUTCH HOUSES AND QUAI, MALINES 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 231 

year mentioned that the central part of the city, including 
the ancient Town Hall and nearly a thousand magnificent 
buildings, were burnt, and upwards of 7,500 of its inhabitants 
were slain in the streets by fire and sword — the St. Bar- 
tholomew of the Netherlands. On its surrender to the 
Duke Alexander of Parma, after a siege of fourteen months, 
the population had been reduced from 130,000 to less than 
85,000, and but four years later this had further decreased by 
nearly 30,000 souls. The trade of Antwerp was almost ruined. 

Then came the rapid commercial rise of the Dutch and 
their chief port, Amsterdam, after the union of the Seven 
Provinces. The Dutch erected forts on their own territory 
at the mouth of the Scheldt;* and by the Peace of West- 
phalia the river was finally shut to seagoing vessels in the 
year 1648, the terms of the Treaty of Miinster of the same 
year being that no seagoing vessel should pass by the Scheldt 
to Antwerp, but that all should unload at a Dutch port, 
trans-shipping their cargo^ which should then be forwarded 
by river craft to the former capital of Belgian commerce. 

In consequence, Antwerp continued to gradually decline 
for more than a century, and it was not until the end came 
to the Austrian rule that the city once more commenced to 
take its place as one of the great and flourishing ports of 
Northern Europe. 

In 1794 the French, by the Treaty of the Hague, suc- 
ceeded in forcing Holland to abandon the system of dues 
levied on vessels bound for Antwerp, which had for nearly a 
century and a half done so much to cripple the trade of the 
once flourishing city. And Napoleon I., recognizing the 
importance of the town from a strategic point of view, 
undertook great harbour works and new quays, which were 
constructed in the first two or three years of the nineteenth 
century. So much was the trade of the town improved by 
these two means — the removal of the Dutch forts at the 
entrance to the Scheldt, and the dues which had been levied 
upon all vessels, that in 1805 upwards of 2,500 vessels of a 
tonnage amounting in the aggregate to nearly 150,000 tons, 
entered the new port of Antwerp. And it is not to be 
wondered at that this revival of the shipping trade had a 
wonderful effect upon the general commerce of the city. 

* In this respect history seems likely to repeat itself, with what com - 
mercial and political results one cannot at present say. — C. H. 



2 32 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

In 1814 the Allies advanced against the town, which was 
defended by Carnot, but was ultimately surrendered to the 
British under General Graham. On the fall of Napoleon it 
was incorporated with the newly-constituted Kingdom of 
the Netherlands, and from that time onward began to trade 
as a Dutch seaport. 

By the constitution of Belgium into a separate kingdom 
in 1830, the city once more suffered severely in its trade. 
The citizens had taken part in the Revolution greatly against 
their own free will, and most of their trade was for a time 
diverted to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The town was 
occupied by the Belgian insurgents and bombarded from 
the southern citadel by the Dutch general Chasse, who two 
years later, in his turn, was besieged by the French for a 
period of two months. The Dutch once more instituted 
their unjust practice of levying tolls on the shipping coming 
to Antwerp, and this, perhaps, had more to do than the 
Revolutionary disturbances with the setback the city re- 
ceived. For nearly thirty years the trade of Antwerp was 
more or less stationary, and it was not until 1863 that the 
right of levying navigation dues on the shipping entering the 
Scheldt, which had been granted to Holland by the peace of 
1839, was commuted by a payment of 36,000,000 francs, of 
which sum Belgium paid one-third and the remainder was 
paid by the other Powers interested. 

Thus once more was this great city, which is, after all, 
the natural outlet of the Scheldt — and, indeed, it is not too 
much to say to a large extent of the German Empire itself — 
placed on the highroad to regain its lost position as one of 
the great ports of Europe. Onward from that time the 
commerce of the city has regularly, and even rapidly, 
increased, and a large number of German and other foreign 
merchants have settled on the banks of the Scheldt. 

The great import trade of Antwerp is very much what it 
was formerly as regards the articles. The chief industries 
of the city otherwise than those connected directly with 
shipping are diamond-cutting, cigar-making, lace-making, 
sugar refining, brewing and distilling. Antwerp is also, be 
it noted, a large emigration port from the Continent. For 
some years past the average number of emigrants leaving it 
for other countries annually is upwards of 70,000. 

Antwerp, too, is the principal arsenal of Belgium, and it 



i 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 233 

is also one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, although to 
the casual and unskilled observer there may be few evidences 
of this fact. Both the city and the river are defended by a 
number of isolated and outlying forts, constructed with 
extraordinary skill, as well as by broad and massive ramparts 
which are upwards of ten miles in length. How far the 
latter would prove impregnable to modern artillery and 
methods in event of attack only experts can conjecture. But 
not the least interesting of the various means of defence 
that have been devised is that by which a considerable 
portion of the suburbs of the city and the district immedi- 
ately outside them can be almost instantaneously flooded, 
Antwerp, it should be also noted, has been for some years 
past provisioned and prepared to be the rendezvous of the 
Belgian Army in the event of the neutrality of the country 
being violated, and the Belgian forces compelled to retreat 
before the enemy. Military authorities calculate that to 
besiege Antwerp successfully an army of nearly 300,000 men, 
with a proper complement of artillery, would be necessary, 
and that so perfectly would the city be provisioned by depots 
and other sources that fully a year would be required ere it 
could be starved into submission. 

Antwerp, now the scene of bustling commerce and active 
municipal life, with huge docks, wharves, and quays stretch- 
ing for several miles down the right bank of the Scheldt, in 
many respects reminds the visitor of Liverpool and the 
Mersey. It is true, of course, that the Scheldt — although at 
times visited by fogs, as is the Mersey — on bright summer 
days has a picturesqueness and clarity of atmosphere that 
the latter stream seldom enjoys, and that the quays and 
wharves have characteristics which differentiate them from 
those of its English counterpart, but nevertheless the 
parallel is not a strained nor an inapt one. Certainly Antwerp 
forms one of the most interesting of Belgian cities of to-day, 
and although year by year the growth of the suburbs serves 
more and more to dwarf the comparatively small element of 
medievalism still remaining, there are yet to be found not a 
few old corners and buildings other than the well-known 
public ones of interest and possessing architectural charm. 
If for no other reason than its possession of many master- 
pieces of the painter's art, the work of Rubens, the Van 
Dycks, Teniers, Quentin Matsys, Jordaens, Seghers, and 



2 34 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

others, who all in past times lived and worked here, 
Antwerp would have a great attraction for the student and 
all lovers of the art of painting, in which the city stood so 
high during the seventeeth century, and even may be said 
to have then enjoyed pre-eminence. 

The men of the modern schools of art working in Antwerp, 
whose names will be familiar to most students — we mean 
such artists as Mattheus Ignatius Van Brel, Ferdinand de 
Braekeleer, among the followers of the Academic School ; 
Gustave Wappers, Nicaise de Keyser, Ernest Slingeneyer, 
Hendrik Leys, Joseph Lies, Albrecht de Vriendt, Henri de 
Braekeleer, J. B. Kindermans, Adrien Joseph Heymans, Jan 
Stobbaerts, and Alexander Struys, to mention only a few. 

Antwerp may be truly called a Flemish city, whilst 
Brussels, on the other hand, might almost be called a little 
Paris. Few things strike the student of character and 
society more forcibly in Antwerp than the Flemish senti- 
ment, which is apparent when once one becomes on intimate 
terms with any friends or acquaintances. Flemish is gener- 
ally spoken, not alone by the common folk, but by many 
people of the middle and upper-middle classes, although, of 
course, the latter can, and do when necessary, speak French, 
and the latter tongue is the language of the greater com- 
mercial houses and all matters to do with the government of 
the town. On the other hand, in Brussels French is much 
more frequently spoken even by the common people, and is 
almost universally so in the homes of the better class. 

As might perhaps be anticipated when one remembers the 
history of Antwerp, most of the surviving portions of the 
older town are to be found within a comparatively small 
radius of the Cathedral and the Place Verte. Each ring or 
extension of this original central town, some of the surviving 
buildings of which date from the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries, as is the case of trees, marks distinctly an era of 
growth, removes one further from the historic portion of the 
city. The suburbs, although many of them are interesting 
as showing the growth of a great modern municipality, have 
little or no historical interest, and therefore those who wish 
to have, as it were, the most archaeologically and archi- 
tecturally interesting part of Antwerp beneath their eye, 
should choose as their abiding-place one of the hotels (of 
which there are quite a number) in the neighbourhood of the 



STORY OF M ALINES AND ANTWERP 235 

charming and tree- shadowed Place Verte, which in many 
respects may be called the centre of the city's life. 

It should be noted here, however, that care should be 
taken regarding the hotel chosen, as some frequented by the 
foreign and fast element of the city are very undesirable 
places of residence for the average tourist. The high prices 
charged for accommodation do not — in these cases at any 
rate — mean a corresponding amount of comfort, attention, 
or quiet — generally, indeed, the reverse. 

On the southern side of the square are one or two hotels 
from which beautiful views of the spire of the Cathedral can 
be had across a miniature forest of trees. And, indeed, to 
have a room overlooking this charming Place Verte is to 
enable one to study much of the social and some of the com- 
mercial life of Antwerp at one's leisure. Especially is this 
the case upon a Sunday morning, when through the square, 
past the flower-stalls which beautify the Cathedral side of it, 
pass streams of worshippers and holiday-makers of all grades 
of society, from the wharfingers to the prosperous merchants 
and bankers, and the petttes marchandes des rues up to the 
merchant princes' wives and daughters, and members of the 
higher ranks of society, whose ancestors fought against 
the Spaniards, and were known in the days when Antwerp 
became great upon the stolen commerce of Bruges. 

Besides, from the Place Verte it is but a short walk to the 
riverside, with its delightful promenades approached by 
slopes and raised above the level of the wharves and quays, 
frequented by all types of Antwerp citizens, their wives and 
children, and affording a magnificent view of the river and 
the flat stretch of green fields and marshes on the other 
shore. 

Antwerp is not unjustly proud of its beautiful Cathedral of 
Notre Dame, which stands just beyond the north-western 
corner of the Place Verte. Although this largest, and by 
some considered the most beautiful, Gothic church in the 
Netherlands is still known as the Cathedral, it now no longer 
contains the seat of a bishop, but forms part of the Diocese 
of Malines. Although it is an extremely fine example of 
Early and Middle Gothic architecture — the tower is Late 
Gothic or Flamboyant in style — it is, perhaps, at first sight, 
externally at all events, somewhat disappointing. One 
reason for this undoubtedly arises from the fact that it is 



2 36 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

unfortunately shut in by many houses of quite a mean 
character. And for this reason the full beauty of the build- 
ing is not seen from the Place Verte, which as an open space 
should naturally form a splendid approach to it. The spire 
has come in for a good deal of latter-day criticism. We read 
in one authority that it is "gingerbread-like and mere- 
tricious "; in another that it is " overladen with ornament, 
and looks cheap and tawdry." Neither one nor the other 
criticism we have quoted will, we fancy, be accepted as 
final or as just by those for whom Late Gothic architecture, 
with its beauty of tracery and ornament, possesses a greater 
attraction than the earher and severer forms of the same 
period. 

The most conspicuous portion of the exterior, other than 
the spire, seen from the Place Verte, is the beautiful chief 
portal, which has been of recent years carefully restored, and 
the south transept. There is little sculpture on them with 
the exception of a small figure of the Virgin with the Child, 
placed high up in the gable end. To view the west front one 
must go round into the little Marche aux Gants, whence 
one has a view of the fine central portal and the west 
window, flanked by the two great towers, the southernmost 
of which is unhappily incomplete. 

There is an interesting well in this little Marche aux 
GantSf over which is a beautiful wrought-iron canopy gener- 
ally attributed to Quentin Matsys, who, it will be remem- 
bered, was a metal worker, if not a blacksmith, before he 
became a great artist. The design of this great canopy is 
full of legendary lore, containing, as it does, the figure of 
Brabbau, who seems to have been a legendary deity or 
personage, chiefly called into existence for the purpose of 
accounting for the place-name Brabant. 

In the trellis of a vine which forms a part of the design 
are to be seen men and women of prehistoric times, armed 
with clubs and other primitive weapons. 

The northern side of the Cathedral, it must be admitted, 
has been rather over much restored. 

The Cathedral is of cruciform shape, with triple aisles and 
ambulatory, and it is generally supposed to have been com- 
menced in the year 1352 under the direction of Jean Amel, 
or Appelmans, a native of Boulogne, his son, Peter, con- 
tinuing the work after his death in 1398. 




THE PLACE VERTE AND RUBENS MONUMENT, ANTWERP 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 237 

In 1434 a new mind — that of Jean Tak — was brought to 
bear upon the structure, and only a few years later, in 1449, 
one Master Everaert took over the superintendence of the 
great work. To this period — that is to say, from the middle 
of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century — the 
choir, with its ambulatory and chapel, the sacristies, and 
the tower as far up as the first gallery, belong. The aisles 
were built during the period covered by the first quarter of 
the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, when 
the building operations were under the direction of Herman 
de Waghemaker and his son Dominic. To them are gener- 
ally ascribed the dome above the crossing and the Late 
Gothic of the upper portion of the northern tower, the final 
pinnacle of which was probably added about 1592. The 
southern tower was never finished, and the work upon it 
was abandoned in 1474, when only about a third of the 
originally contemplated structure had been completed. 

In the year 1533 the church was very seriously damaged 
by fire, and suffered thirty-three years later from the fanati- 
cism of the iconoclasts. Once again it was greatly damaged 
by vandalism during the occupation of the country by the 
French Republican forces in 1794. 

A more or less thorough restoration of the building on a 
large scale was commenced in the year 1867 under the 
direction of Fran9ois Andre de Durlet, a native of the city, 
and has been continued until the present time with more or 
less interruption. 

The interior of the Cathedral is one of considerable beauty 
and of great size and impressiveness, the perspective of its 
six aisles affording a charming vista. The extreme length is 
384 feet; the width of nave 171 feet, of transept 212 feet; 
and the height 130 feet. Broadly speaking, a general plan 
seems to have been adhered to throughout, notwithstanding 
the fact that the work of building was extended over a period 
covering nearly two centuries. Thus the whole presents a 
tolerably uniform aspect, and though its parts differ in 
detail, they are, notwithstanding this, homogeneous in form. 
The roof is sustained by no less than 125 pillars, if they can 
be so described, which have no capitals, and constitute a 
marvellous assemblage of shafts that exhibit a continuous 
impost. This characteristic, to many observers, gives the 
interior a not entirely pleasing aspect. But it must be 



238 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

remembered that the actual appearance of the edifice does 
not entirely nor fairly represent the architect's intention, 
inasmuch as the altitude of the piers is considerably less 
than was originally the case, the floor level having been 
altered more than once. About the middle of the eighteenth 
century the latter was raised no less than 2 feet, this causing 
the bases of the piers to be hidden, and the effect has, of 
course, been very disastrous. The reason assigned for this 
most unfortunate act was that the ground outside the build- 
ing had been gradually raised ; but this, one would have 
thought, should not have been sufficient excuse for disturb- 
ing the then existing beautiful proportions. 

Quite independently of its great size and impressiveness, 
the Cathedral is celebrated from the fact that it has a 
nave of six aisles, three of them on each side, giving to it 
an extremely striking appearance. On entering, the effect 
on one is peculiar. This is caused chiefly from the appa- 
rently interminable forest of pillars which stretch them- 
selves out on either hand, and from the constancy with 
which the continuous impost has been used. A feature that 
at once strikes one is the absence of a choir-screen in a 
country where screens of a lofty character are most frequent, 
but the absence adds much to the beauty of the vista. 

The interior is almost bare of decorative sculptures, and 
it is happily free from those vulgar statues of Apostles so 
frequently found placed against the pillars of the nave. 

The absence of a triforium and the consequent proximity 
of the arcade and clerestory give a rather modern and non- 
Gothic touch to the nave as it stretches out before one. 
And although the continuous imposts of the pillars of the 
intermediate aisles serve to enhance the elegance which they 
derive from their slender proportions — the comparatively low 
roof of the nave, the equal division of its bays in the arcade 
and clerestory, the absence of carvings, capitals to the 
pillars, etc., throughout, and, in addition, the poor forms of 
the archivolt mouldings, serve to produce an effect which is 
not worthy of the greatness and costliness of the building as 
a whole. 

One realizes in noticing these things how greatly the art 
of architecture had decayed when the church was erected. 
Also how at that time much account was placed upon mere 
size, and that the spirit of Gothic architecture and design 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 239 

was decaying when frequent and monotonous repetition of 
parts and details were tolerated in such a building as this 
Cathedral. 

The medieval rood-loft was destroyed in 1556 at the time 
the church was so greatly damaged by the fanaticism of the 
GueuXf who smashed its richly-sculptured altars, broke much 
stained glass, and destroyed a great many of the figures 
adorning the porches. 

The choir-stalls, filling the first two bays on either side, 
were placed there between 1844 and 1847, and although 
some of their details are interesting and praiseworthy, their 
design is quite in antagonism to all ecclesiastical tradition. 
In i860 the stalls were finished by the famous Louvain 
sculptor, Karel Hendrick Geerts, and his elaborate and 
beautifully-carved groups and statues should on no account 
be missed by the lover or student of good carving. The 
beautiful and imaginative handiwork of Geerts has done 
much to remove the impression of poverty and bareness 
which the stall work originally gave. And this is now one 
of the most splendid monuments to be met with anywhere 
of the revival of medieval art. 

The high altar-piece in the choir, placed at the chord of 
the apse, is a very fine example of Early Renaissance work 
and taste ; but its size is such as to serve to diminish the 
scale of the choir, and the five arches opening into the pro- 
cession path are entirely hidden by it. This altar-piece is 
enriched by the great masterpiece of Rubens — *' The Assump- 
tion," painted in 1626 — and of all the creations of the artist 
perhaps there is none other which more thoroughly exhibits 
his great grasp of religious decorative art. It certainly ranks 
as a work with that having the same subject now to be seen 
in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, and is one of the best of 
the ten pictures the artist painted, all having the same sub- 
ject, none of which, it is an interesting matter to note, except 
this one, are in the places the artist originally intended they 
should occupy. The work, of course, is seen at a consider- 
able distance, and every outline of the picture is instinct 
with light, so that the central figure of the Virgin is seen 
ascending in a dazzling glory, so far as our knowledge goes, 
unequalled by the work of any other painter. The Virgin 
is caught up into the air by a circle of little cherubs, whilst 
below stand the Apostles gazing into the empty tomb, and 



240 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the centre of the foreground is occupied by the holy women, 
about to pluck roses from the latter. 

The Cathedral is famous for its artistic treasures, and 
before we come to an examination of the other works of this 
great master, it will be well, perhaps, to mention a few of 
the smaller works of art which should not be overlooked. In 
the south aisle, for example, there are some modern Stations 
of the Cross by Vinck and Hendricks of really admirable 
character, and painted in the right and not the ultra-modern 
spirit. Each one is quite worthy careful examination, 
although, of course, many visitors are, we were told, inclined 
to overlook them by reason of their modernity. The Chapel 
of the Sacrament, which is at the end of the south aisle, 
contains some fine stained-glass windows dating from the 
early part of the sixteenth century, the subjects of which 
are the Last Supper, St. Amand converting Antwerp, and 
St. Norbert preaching against the heresy of Tanchelinus at 
Antwerp. 

In the south transept, from which one can get very 
pleasing vistas of the central dome and aisles, is a good 
modern stained-glass window, and on the south wall are two 
pictures, " The Last Supper," by Otto Van Veem, of whom 
Rubens learned painting, formerly on the altar in the Chapel 
of the Sacrament, and the " Marriage at Cana in Galilee," 
painted for the altar of the wine merchants by De Vos. On 
the left wall of the south transept is hung Rubens' great 
triptych, better known as " The Descent from the Cross." 
The story of how this wonderful picture came to be painted 
is not without interest.* It runs that at the request of 
Albert and Isabella, then Governors of the Low Countries, 
the artist agreed to reside in Antwerp, and, to enable himself 
to do this, built a house and studio, which trespassed on 
land belonging to the Company of Arquebusiers, who, in 
consequence, went to law with him. Unwilling to be 
mulcted in monetary damages, and by way of compromising 
the situation, Rubens agreed to paint the Guild a picture of 
St. Christopher, whose name, of course, signifies Bearer of 
Christ, who was the patron saint of the Arquebusiers. The 
artist did it after his most magnificent fashion, and illustrated 
the subject in four ways by this famous triptych and the 

* It is necessary to state that there are several versions of this incident, 
of which the one given appears to be the best authenticated. — C. H. 







A STREET SCENE IN ANTWERP 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 241 

picture on its exterior. In the pictures within the shutters 
Mary, on the left hand, is seen in the subject of the Visita- 
tion, the central picture being the " Descent from the Cross," 
with the dead Christ borne by Joseph of Arimathea and 
the disciples, and the right-hand panel showing the presenta- 
tion in the Temple, where the living Christ is borne in the 
arms of Simeon. There is a tradition in connection with 
this work that Van Dyck was chosen by his terrified com- 
panions to retouch the neck and chin of the Virgin which 
had been damaged in a studio fracas, and that Rubens con- 
sidered the work to be so good that he let it stand. The 
picture was placed in position in 1612, and forms the 
greatest treasure of the Cathedral. 

The outer shutters of the work are seldom seen nowadays, 
although the sacristan will usually, as he did in our case, 
close them on request, when the figure of St. Christopher, 
and the hermit with his owl and lantern directing the 
saint to Christ, is seen, as is also the case in the earlier 
St. Christopher triptych by Memlinc in the Academy at 
Bruges. 

There have been many criticisms published upon this 
famous painting regarding its merits merely as a work of art, 
from a more or less technical point of view, and as a composi- 
tion teaching a lesson or impressing the beholder. For our- 
selves, we must admit that, whilst realizing the splendour 
and gorgeousness of the conception and colour, and the great 
technical skill which the painter exhibits in overcoming 
mechanical difficulties, the impression made upon our mind 
was not so much one of sentiment and spiritual grandeur as 
arousing in one a sense of the wonderful skill and genius of 
the painter himself. On the whole, the rendering of the 
idea seems to lack pathos and even nobility. There are 
several small details where one's idea of fitness is shocked, 
but some of the faces, especially those of Mary Magdalene 
and St. John, are perfectly delightful. 

In the second chapel of the ambulatory is the tomb of 

John Moretus, son-in-law of the renowned Plantin, with 

pictures painted by Rubens, who was a friend of the famous 

printer, for the tomb. The portrait of John Moretus above 

the latter is supposed to have been painted by a pupil, 

retouched by Rubens himself. The triptych has for its 
16 



242 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

subject the Resurrection ; of course, emblematic of hope for 
the future of Moretus. 

Most of the chapels of the ambulatory contain works of 
art, stained glass, or tombs, worthy of notice, but for which 
there is no space for detailed description here. 

On the back of the high altar opposite the sixth chapel 
are some extraordinary painted imitations of reliefs by Van 
Brey, and near them the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, the 
wife of Charles the Bold and mother of Mary of Burgundy. 

Many of the chapels contain fine altar-pieces, generally 
modern, but of archaic design. In the north transept and 
on the right wall is found Rubens' famous '' Elevation of 
the Cross," in the form of a triptych, but with the main idea 
continuing through the three pictures. Although this work 
exhibits in the strongest light some of the most individual 
features of the artist's style, it cannot be said that Rubens 
in it reached to the higher and spiritual attainment of sacred 
art. The figure of Christ is undoubtedly effective, and the 
chiaroscuro is excellent whereby the great central mass of 
light is increased in value by the flesh-tints of the Saviour's 
body, so that it seems to come into tone with the powerful 
scarlet of the old man's robe and with other surrounding 
parts. Every critic, we fancy, would admit the triumphs 
over technical difficulties which the painter has thus 
achieved, but some of the figures strike one as very coarse, 
and the attitudes as extravagant, and even out of place, 
especially the contorted figure at the foot of the Cross. In 
the right wing, however, one finds much that is charming 
and natural, especially in the figures of the Virgin and 
St. John. The colouring of these is, indeed, really wonder- 
ful, and typical of Rubens at his best. 

Technically speaking, of course, the workmanship of the 
whole triptych — the colouring, the modelling, etc. — are 
almost beyond criticism. But the coarseness of many of the 
figures conveys to one's mind the ineffaceable impression 
that Rubens lacked spirituality and the sentiment necessary 
to deal with sacred and pathetic subjects. This picture, the 
prevailing colour of which is brown, and the tone cold, was 
formerly the altar-piece of the Church of Ste. Walburga, a 
representation of whom is seen on the outer shutters among 
other saints. 

These, then, are the principal art treasures of this 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 243 

Cathedral, which is wonderfully rich in this respect. In 
the nave there is a seventeenth-century pulpit of elaborate 
design, at first sight the subject of which appears to be the 
four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. 

Antwerp possesses several other fine and interesting 
churches, for a brief description of the chief of which, 
St. Jacques and St. Paul, we must surely find a place. 

The former is, on the whole, most easily and best reached 
on foot from the Cathedral by way of the Marche au Laity 
along the Courte Rue Neuve and the Longue Rue Neuve ; 
about midway down the latter, at the corner of the Rue 
St. Jacques, stands the church. Ere we reach it we pass the 
extremely ornamental Bourse, reached from the Longue 
Rue Neuve by the Rue de la Bourse, which was built by 
Joseph Schadde to replace the fine Late Gothic building 
erected in 1531 by Dominions de Waghemaker. This 
ancient building, which was almost destroyed in 158 1 by fire, 
the remains being burned down again in 1858, was the 
oldest Exchange in Europe. The new edifice, which is in 
modern Late Gothic, following out the original design of the 
sixteenth century, but on a much larger scale, is much more 
picturesque and artistic than is generally the case with 
buildings of the kind. The walls are decorated with the 
arms of Antwerp and of the different provinces of Belgium, 
and the Belgian lion, whilst in the angles between the arches 
are to be found the arms of the chief seafaring nations. 

The Church of St. Jacques, which is well-proportioned and 
cruciform in plan, unfortunately suffers, as does the Cathedral 
itself, from its environment, if of not exactly mean streets, 
decidedly commonplace, and even mean-looking, houses. 
It possesses a magnificently solid-looking, but unfinished, 
western tower. The style of the church is the latter period 
of the Pointed, from about 1479-1505, but, like the 
Cathedral itself, is distinguished by the great simplicity of 
its arrangement and details. There are, however, many 
works of sculpture in it of great merit from the hands of 
various distinguished Flemish artists. 

The general effect of the interior upon the visitor on 
entering is decidedly pleasing. One of the chief features, it 
will at once be noticed, is the fact that the aisles, throughout 
its entire length, have chapels adjoining them. The Re- 
naissance screen, which divides the nave from the choir, 



244 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

though somewhat over-elaborate in character, is a very fine 
example of the kind of work that it represents. 

The church might well be known as the Westminster 
Abbey of Antwerp, for in it many of the wealthiest and most 
distinguished families of the city have for centuries had their 
burial-vaults, the most interesting of which is that of the 
Rubens family in the ambulatory. Indeed, after the 
Cathedral, St. Jacques may, from the richness of its monu- 
ments and decorations (concerning the character of which, 
however, some critics have been extremely severe), well lay 
claim to be the most important church. There is good 
stained glass, most of it dating from the seventeenth century, 
in several of the chapels, particularly the second in the north 
aisle, which also contains a fine triptych by Abraham 
Janssens, " The Coronation of Our Lady," with good port- 
raits of the donors. The end chapel behind the high altar 
is the burial-place of the Rubens family ; and the altar-piece 
represents the Madonna and Child adored by St. Bonaventura, 
close to whom stands the Magdalen. The effect of the great 
central picture with its group of women, to our mind, is in a 
measure spoiled by the introduction of the two male figures, 
who have really no raison d'etre in the position they occupy. 
The colouring is good, and, though the picture has been 
greatly injured, it exhibits enough of Rubens' greater 
characteristics to render it a valuable legacy of his genius. 
The picture for many will have added interest from the fact 
that the face of St. George is generally supposed to have 
been painted by Rubens from his own countenance, whilst 
his two wives appear in the figures of Mary Magdalene and 
Martha, and his father is reproduced as St. Jerome, his son 
as one of the hovering cherubs, and his aged grandfather as 
the figure of Time. . 

Rubens, who died on May 30, 1640, aged sixty-four, we | 
are told, was borne to his tomb in St. Jacques (which was 
covered by a slab in 1755), with the greatest honours that it 
was possible for the city to pay. 1 

The choir stalls form another feature of the church, which ! 
should be noted. They were carved by the older and 
younger Quellin, and they still bear the arms of the noble 
families to which they once belonged. Rubens' stall is the 
twelfth to the left from the entrance. 

The confessionals of St. Jacques in the ambulatory, south 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 245 

side along the walls of the choir, are famous almost the 
world over. They are the work of Artus Quellin, Louis 
Willemsens, his pupil, and other noted wood-carvers of the 
period. 

The second church we have mentioned, that of St. Paul 
though standing in a picturesque part of the town near the 
Marche au Betail, is in a most unsalubrious neighbourhood, 
and had, indeed, better be avoided, especially in the summer- 
time, by persons subject to complaints arising from bad 
smells. It is best reached by way of the quays, proceeding 
from the Cathedral through the Marche aux Gants, and 
along the Canal du Sucre, past the Maison Hanseat, past 
the Musee du Stein, and then into the Marche au Betail. 
St. Paul's, which formerly belonged to the adjoining 
Dominican monastery, is in the Late Gothic Style, and was 
erected during the period covered by the years 1533-1571. 
The relief over the outer doorway of the court depicts 
St. Dominic receiving the rosary from Our Lady, and to the 
right as one enters the church is an astoundingly gaudy 
Calvary, constructed of rock and rubble, erected against the 
wall of the transept. Above it is the Crucifixion, below the 
entombment and Holy Sepulchre, whilst all around are other 
scenes — St. Peter with the crowing cock, Christ and the 
Magdalene in the Garden, with a number of statues of 
saints, angels, prophets, and others. On entering the church 
one is at once struck by its elegant and beautiful proportions, 
and it should be visited by students of architecture and 
others, as presenting one of the best examples of the more 
refined type of church raised in Belgium by the Dominican 
Order. Its magnificent Renaissance choir stalls and carved 
confessionals are celebrated throughout the country. The 
nave is very spacious, with a deep, aisleless choir termi- 
nating in an apse and having transepts. A very fine painting 
of this church by the artist David Roberts is now hung in 
the Tate Gallery, London. The Renaissance tower, which 
terminates in a cupola, is built against the eastern side of the 
southern transept, and as the transepts do not project 
beyond the nave, they appear from the outside of the church 
to be unusually short when considered in proportion to their 
height. 

There are several pictures of note in this church, among 
them " The Bearer of the Cross," an early work of Van 



246 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Dyck ; a " Crucifixion," by Jacob Jordaens ; and an '* Adora- 
tion of the Shepherds and Presentation in the Temple," 
by Maerten de Vos. In the north transept is Rubens' 
" Scourging of Christ," and at the altar is a "Virgin of the 
Rosary," the original of which, by Caravaggio, was sent as a 
present to the Emperor Joseph of Austria, who forwarded 
this copy in exchange. 

The high altar in the choir, the work of Pieter Verbruggen, 
has an altar-piece by Cornelius Cels, the " Descent of the 
Cross," and in the south aisle on the altar to the left is 
Rubens' " Assemblage of Church Teachers," and a pieta of 
De Crayer on the altar to the right. " The Seven Works 
of Mercy," a curious collection of cripples and the halt 
of every description by the elder Teniers, is to be seen 
opposite. 

Of the other things worth seeing in this interesting 
church, may be mentioned the ornate Renaissance con- 
fessional-stalls lining the side of the nave aisles. On each 
side of the seats of these works is a place for the com- 
municant, and the front is decorated by two statues of 
angels standing on either side in simple attitudes, near which 
are almost life-size figures of saints. The carving, though 
comparatively modern, is very fine, and particularly should 
be noticed the disposition and the execution of the draperies, 
which are free and very graceful in style. The expressions 
and attitudes of the figures, we noticed, were particularly 
pleasing from their repose and absence of anything theatrical. 

Antwerp, of course, is celebrated because of its picture- 
gallery, which is so splendidly housed in the fine museum at 
the southern end of the town. We reached it from St. Paul's 
by way of the wide quays, always interesting, and instinct 
with maritime and commercial life. It is obviously impos- 
sible to more than indicate a few of the treasures contained 
in this imposing building, which stands, delightfully sur- 
rounded by trees, on the Place Leopold Wael. It is erected 
in the Greek Renaissance Style, with a touch of the Baroque, 
from plans by J. J. Winders and Fran9ois Van Dyck in 
1879-1890. The Museum forms a massive rectangle enclos- 
ing six fine inner courts. The attic story is imposing, and 
embellished with allegorical figures and medallions of 
Ducaju, De Pleyn, and Fabri. The horizontal line of the 
upper cornice is broken at the corners by massive pylon 



A 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 247 

shaped pedestals, on which are placed four horse chariots 
and figures by Vingotte. 

At the rear of the building is a magnificent and colossal 
group by L. Mignon, intended as commemorative of the 
artist, Sir Antony Van Dyck. 

In the sculpture gallery, in the left wing of the ground 
floor, are to be seen some magnificent examples of modern 
art ; and in the right wing on the same floor are the Rubens 
and Vandyck collections, which are world-famed and priceless. 

The upper part of the building is devoted to the picture- 
gallery. It may be mentioned that this magnificent museum 
contains in its almost unequalled rooms a large number of 
Flemish pictures, which were, many of them, collected from 
the churches and monasteries of the city and elsewhere at 
the time of their suppression, and, when viewing them, it 
should be borne in mind that a large number of the canvases 
here seen were painted for ecclesiastical use and positions in 
churches, and not for exhibition in a museum. 

Students generally need no urging to give this marvellous 
collection of pictures several days' attentive study. 

Of course, the great glory of the museum is its Rubens 
collection, and it may not be out of place here to indicate 
very briefly the position of this great artist as a master in 
Flemish art. In the early days of painting in the Low 
Countries, the art may be said to have followed a strictly 
national line of development, very little impinged upon by 
outside methods or the work of foreign schools. By the 
time of Quentin Matsys, Pourbus, and others, the effect of 
the Italian Renaissance had begun to be felt by the artists of 
the Low Countries, but it was not until the advent of 
Rubens that Flemish painting became materially altered in 
style and sentiment, and in a measure adopted the broader 
and more grandiose style of the then Italian, and especially 
the Venetian, masters ; but it must be frankly admitted 
that, whilst Rubens was undoubtedly indebted to these for 
much of his knowledge and not a little of his style, he yet 
managed to infuse his pictures with local feeling, and to 
leave upon them the mark of his own somewhat flamboyant 
taste. 

Rubens, although born at Siegen, in Nassau, in 1577, was 
the son of an Antwerp judge, belonging to an important 
family who had been exiled because of their supposed 



248 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Calvinistic faith, and disgraced on account of the intrigue of 
a member of the family with Anne of Saxony, the eccentric 
wife of WilHam of Orange. Thus it will be seen that Rubens 
was a gentleman both by birth and breeding, and his pictures 
may be said in a way to indicate these characteristics on 
account of their luxuriant and brilliant colouring and general 
taste. He learned painting of Otho van Veem, who was the 
Court painter to the Duke of Parma, and himself a Flemish 
artist, though he had become a naturalized Italian. Rubens 
apparently travelled quite early in life fairly widely in Italy, 
where he gained, to a great extent, a taste for the prevailing 
characteristics of Italian art as seen in the works of Paul 
Veronese, Titian, and, to a considerably less extent, in those 
of Tintoretto. To these influences, and to those of Domeni- 
chino and the later Roman school of painters, one must add 
the more subtle one, under which doubtless Rubens was 
brought, of the spirit of the sixteenth and early seventeenth 
century art. 

The voyages to America and India, and the sudden open- 
ing up of vast possibilities in overseas trade and discovery, 
had its effect upon even such an uncommercial thing as the 
art of painting, and it may be said that there was a 
Renaissance, not only of commerce, but of general activity, 
during this period which affected all walks in life. The 
effect of this romantic age was seen in our own country chiefly 
in its literature, the rich and varied harvests of Elizabethan 
wits, poets, and philosophers. In the Netherlands the 
effect was seen not in literature, but in art, and during that 
period were produced many of the wonderful works in the 
school of Rubens w^hich form some of the chief art treasures 
of Belgium of to-day. 

It must not be forgotten, too, that environment can often 
play an important part in the element of action as well as in 
the subjects of pictures. A fair acquaintance with Rubens' 
works must always, we think, bring home to the student that 
element of bustle and vigorous life which was the reflex, 
as it were, of the hustling, busy life of a great port such as 
Antwerp had become in Rubens' time. 

Rubens was one of the most prolific of m.asters, and 
may be said to have been a genius at "lightning" studies, 
although many of the pictures which occupied him scarcely 
as many days as they might have been supposed to have 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 249 

taken weeks, show very little trace of the prodigious rapidity 
with which he worked. Not a few of his largest canvases 
were done in a fortnight, but it should be remembered, in 
connection with both the number of pictures he painted and 
the speed at which they were turned out, that he frequently 
called in to his assistance, in the painting of less important 
details, one or other of the many pupils he always seems to 
have had available. Of all Rubens' pupils Van Dyck was 
destined to become the most famous, and had far the most 
individuality, tenderness, and refinement. His works, a 
number of which are to be seen in the Museum, are indeed 
more satisfying and more artistic than many of those of his 
master himself. 

In the Hall of the Ancient Masters of the Antwerp Museum, 
containing examples both of native and foreign art, are many 
pictures well worth the study, not only of students, but of all 
in the last interested in the evolution of an art. 

To give more than a mere catalogue of the most important 
pictures would be impossible in a book of the present size and 
scope and this could have no possible interest. It must 
therefore suffice for us to mention Rubens, Van Dyck, 
Quentin Matsys, David Teniers, Michael Coxie, Van Orley, 
Martin de Vos, Gerard Terburg, Franz Hals, Franz de 
Vriendt, Titian, M. Hobbema, Jacques Jordaens, Hans 
Memlinc, Jan Gossaert, and Hans Holbein. 

Most notable painters of the nineteenth century are 
also represented by more or less famous works, and 
many of these are well worth examination, not only from 
the point of view of gaining thereby an acquaintance with 
what is best in modern Belgian art, but because of the 
historic and pictorial interest of many of the subjects dealt 
with. 

One leaves this great collection each time with a greater 
appreciation for the^masters of the past, who, often labouring 
under mechanical difficulties, yet so frequently triumphed 
over them and left such a precious heritage for their successors. 

The centre of Antwerp anciently was the Grande Place, 
and it is in the immediate neighbourhood of it, and the 
Cathedral that one naturally wanders amid narrow, winding, 
and often far from cleanly streets in search of what now 
remains of the once numerous houses of merchant princes 
of the past. Most of the old Guild Houses, including the 



250 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Maison de Tonneliers (House of the Coopers), Maison de la 
Vielle ArhaUte (House of the Archers) with a double- storied 
gable and a gilded figure of St. George on horseback ; and 
Maison des Charpentiers (House of the Carpenters) are on the 
Grande Place. 

The Hotel de Ville of Renaissance design will be a great 
disappointment to most people who have seen those of 
Ypres, Louvain, Bruges, Brussels, and even some in towns 
of lesser note. It appears to us quite unworthy of the great 
city by the Scheldt. It was in most part built in 1560 or 
thereabouts from designs by Cornelis de Vriendt or Floris, 
but was greatly injured by a fire during the attack upon 
Antwerp by the Spaniards twenty years later. The facade 
is rather imposing as regards size, but plain and almost 
domestic in character. The ground floor is of red marble, 
and the two upper stories have arcades with Doric and Ionic 
pillars of substantial character. The top floor has an open 
loggia or colonnade supporting the roof. One of the most 
interesting details of an unusually uninteresting building is 
the statue of the Virgin and Child, which was placed in the 
niche in the gable end by the Spaniards in 1585. The 
Virgin is the patroness of the city, and on either side of 
her are statues symbolical of Justice and Wisdom. 

The interior has been greatly modernized, but the stair- 
case of coloured marbles, and the huge wooden Carytides 
supporting the roof and representing different industries of 
the city, are effective. The wall decorative paintings, by A. 
de Vriendt, the possessor of a great name in Flemish art, 
and by no means a poor craftsman himself, though modern, 
and dating only from i8g8, are interesting and excellent 
works of their kind. They depict scenes in the history of ) 
the city at its zenith of power and prosperity. 

Most of the rooms are adorned by carved wooden panel- 
work, and in the Burgomaster's room there is a finely carved 
chimneypiece in the Renaissance style, taken from the 
Premonstratensian Abbey of Tongerloo. The gem of the 
rooms, however, is the Great Hall, of late years known as 
the Salle Leys, by reason of the fine paintings by Baron 
Hendrik Leys, who was a pupil of F. de Braekelder and 
Gustav Wappers, which decorate the walls. The subjects, 
which are historical, and are boldly and spiritedly painted, 
depict the entry of Charles V. into Antwerp in 1514, when 

I 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 251 

he swore to respect the ancient privileges of the citizens ; 
the scene of the Burgomaster, Van Ursele, entrusting the 
magistrate, Van Spanghen, with the command of the Muni- 
cipal Guard for the defence of the city in 1541 ; the Rights 
of Citizenship (Freedom of the City) being conferred upon 
one Pallavicini of Genoa in 1541 ; and Margaret of Parma 
giving the keys of the city to the Burgomaster during the 
troubles of 1566. In the Salle de Manages (where the civil 
marriages take place) there are some good pictures by a pupil 
of Leys dealing with ancient marriage customs, and a fine 
black and white marble Renaissance chimneypiece. 

Amongst the many other interesting buildings in Antwerp 
one must give pride of place to the Musee Plantin-Moretus, 
which stands in a corner of the little Marche du Vendredi, 
reached pleasantly along the Quais Van Dyck and Plantin 
by the waterside, and promenoirs. The museum derives 
its name from the famous printer, Christopher Plantin, and 
his son-in-law, John Moretus. The house, in which seven 
generations of the family of Moretus had carried on their 
business of printers, was acquired by the city of Antwerp in 

1875. 

The building is one of the most interesting in Belgium, as 
it remains essentially just as it was when occupied by the 
famous printer in the sixteenth century, an admirable and 
unique example of the dwelling-house and business offices of 
a wealthy and refined Flemish citizen-merchant of that 
period. 

In it are a number — fifteen in all — of early works by 
Rubens, and other interesting portraits and pictures by other 
Antwerp and Flemish painters. Fine tapestry, spinet, 
furniture, manuscripts from ninth to sixteenth century, 
letters and documents relating to the families of Plantin and 
Moretus, and specimens of the famous Plantin Press books. 
These latter include the celebrated " Biblia Polyglotta," 
published from 1568 to 1573. 

The printing office, which is across a beautiful courtyard, 
with its wonderful old vine rambling over the hoary walls, 
reminding one of those of our own Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge, is of great interest by reason of the fact 
that the various rooms remain in their original state, as 
though the workmen had but just left them for the luncheon 
hour, after putting down the work upon which they had 



252 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

been engaged, to return very shortly and resume their 
labours. The ancient proof-sheets are still lying about in 
the chamber allotted to proof-readers ; and in the type-room 
it is the same : the old matrices, formes, rules, and chases are 
still as they were left ; and in the composing and printing 
rooms are two sixteenth-century presses. The proprietor's 
room, and the chamber which it is traditionally believed the 
famous Professor Justus Lipsius, of Louvain University, 
used to occupy when on business visits to his publisher, 
Moretus, are equally interesting as giving one a clear and 
fascinating glimpse of a bygone age and a knowledge of 
ancient things. The missals and medieval manuscripts are 
worthy of the closest inspection and study, and the beautiful 
cabinets of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell are not likely to 
escape the notice of the admirers and collectors of old 
furniture.* 

Although the immediate environs of Antwerp are not, like 
those of Brussels, very picturesque, the famous avenues in 
the city and suburbs, mostly constructed on the sites formerly 
occupied by the ancient ramparts, are extensive, and a walk 
or drive along them gives one an excellent impression of the 
better portion of the city. Considering its size and com- 
mercial character, Antwerp is fairly well provided with open 
spaces. The most picturesque of its parks and public 
gardens is that lying within the triangle of the three avenues 
named after Rubens, Van Dyck, and Quentin Matsys, almost 
in the exact geographical centre of the city. Its pretty- 
trees, and two sheets of ornamental water, make it a 
favourite resort with Antwerp folk in the evenings, and 
especially during the time the band plays on Sundays. 

A short way to the south-west is the Palais de Justice, a 
modern building dating from 1871, in the French style, and 
designed on the lines of a chateau of the seventeenth century. 
The pretty little Jardin Botanique is close by, the museum 
of which is worth seeing ; and north-eastward from the park 
lies that fashionable resort the Zoological Garden, at the 
back of the Gare Centrale, It is one of the best in Europe, 
and there are excellent and almost daily concerts held in it. 

* Those who would know more of this fascinating old house, its history 
and historic contents, cannot do better than possess 'themselves of a 
copy of Max Roose's excellent and instructive volume, "Zi? Mus/e 
Plantin- Moretus^'' 



STORY OF MALINES AND ANTWERP 253 

The restaurant in summer presents one of the most lively 
and attactive sights, crowded as it usually is by Belgian 
families of the better class bent upon enjoying themselves. 

Here is the place for the student to study the different 
types of the better class Antwerpers, and an hour or two 
spent in this way is not wasted. 

A few words in conclusion of this brief account of Antwerp 
must be said regarding one of the most beautiful features of 
the city. We refer to the gorgeous and wonderful sunsets 
which are so often seen across the Scheldt. Over the 
immense Fort de la Tete de Flandre, whose grimness is in 
such contrast to the gaiety, roundabouts, swing-boats, skittle- 
alleys, and general air of amusement in the grounds of the 
Kursaal, which clings almost to its skirts, on cloudy summer 
evenings there is a scene of aerial beauty scarcely equalled in 
another part of northern Europe. On a " sunset " evening 
(as favourable atmospheric conditions are called) crowds 
throng the elevated promenoirs by the riverside, all intent 
upon the wonderful sky effects that the sun, wind, and 
atmosphere are, as it were, unrolling before them like some 
huge cloud and seascape canvas of a great master. 

It is a sight not to be easily forgotten, for it often has a 
savage splendour and riotous magnificence of colouring. 



CHAPTER X 

GHENT: ITS STORY AND HISTORIC BUILDINGS 

GHENT, which from time immemorial has been the 
capital of East Flanders, and in the Middle Ages was 
so keen a commercial rival of Bruges, is situate at the 
junction of the Scheldt with the Lys, where there arose 
in the very earliest period of the Middle Ages a rapidly 
growing trading town, known as Gent in Flemish, Gande 
in French, but which is nowadays more commonly. written 
Ghent. Like Bruges, too, it spread over a close network of 
rivers and canals, derived chiefly from the two main streams, 
and those of the Lieve and the Moere. 

Perhaps Ghent, even more than Bruges, from a purely j 
physical aspect deserves the term of '' The Venice of the 
North," for the intersecting streams and canals have actually 
split it up into a considerable number of islands. Quite 
early in its history it had a splendid system of communica- 
tion by water with Bruges, Courtrai, Tournai, and other 
towns, and less directly with both Antwerp and Brussels. 

Nowadays Ghent is also in direct communication with 
the North Sea through the Terneuzen Canal, which is 
of a sufficient depth to allow of the passage of ships of 
considerable size. 

The chief industry of the city from its early days was - 
weaving, and this grew so rapidly during the Middle Ages 
that in time, although the citizens had received from their 
Count one of the usual charters such as were granted by the 
feudal lords of cities, its subjection to the latter became 
almost purely nominal, and whilst owing allegiance to both 
the Counts of Flanders and the Dukes of Burgundy, the 
citizens enjoyed such privileges and immunities as rendered 
them de facto almost independent. 

254 I 



GHENT: ITS STORY 255 

Ghent in these far-off days equipped large bodies of citizen 
soldiers, and at the height of its prosperity and wealth could 
put 80,000 men in the field. 

The men of Ghent were, one would gather, always great 
fighters. And although in the early days of the rebellion of 
De Coninck and Breidel of Bruges they blew hot and cold, 
they became eventually determined opponents of the claims 
put forward by the Kings of France to interfere in the 
internal affairs of the country, and had a great deal to do 
with the winning of the famous Battle of Spurs. 

Quite early in the fourteenth century the burghers of 
Ghent struck a blow for, and practically attained, indepen- 
dence under the leadership of the famous brewer, Jacob, or 
Jacques, Van Artevelde. Till the beginning of the fourteenth 
century the Counts and the people of Flanders had been 
united in their determination to resist the claims of the 
French kings to in any way rule over them. But the com- 
plexion of affairs was altered in 1322 by the accession of 
Count Louis of Nevers, who, by reason of his French educa- 
tion and interests and his aristocratic leanings, was out of 
sympathy with the popular cause. He not only favoured 
French pretensions, but was actuated in a measure so to do 
by the personal desire he had to curtail the democratic 
liberties of his Flemish towns, and to play the role of a 
despotic ruler. As might be expected, the wealthy and 
largely populated towns, at the head of which stood Ghent, 
determined upon resistance, and in the year 1337 Van 
Artevelde was appointed to enforce their wishes, and, fearing 
the storm that he had raised. Count Louis fled to France 
and appealed for aid to the then reigning King, Philippe of 
Valois. 

It was thus that Edward III. of England, who was then 
engaged in a war with France, came to put forward at the 
instance of Van Artevelde, who sought alliance with the 
English King, a claim to the French crown. Van Artevelde 
was largely influenced in his scheme of getting Edward III. 
to formulate this claim, by reason of the fact that the 
Flemings were diffident of entirely throwing off their allegi- 
ance. Van Artevelde was clever enough to see that if his 
fellow-countrymen could be persuaded that Edward had a 
claim to the French throne, he would find an alliance with 
Edward to gain the independence of East Flanders a much 



256 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

more popular thing. Edward, therefore, came forward as the 
King of France in seeking an alliance with Flanders. The 
commercial results of this friendship were destined to be of 
much greater importance than the poHtical. England was 
the great producer of the raw material, wool, which the town 
of Ghent needed for its industrial activity, and the alliance 
proved of immense value to both parties. 

It was under these circumstances that Van Artevelde, 
captain of Ghent, rose to a position of immense power, and 
for nearly a decade held not only the supreme authority in 
his native town, but over the greater part of Flanders as 
well. So powerful, indeed, did Van Artevelde become that 
Edward III., who stayed at Ghent as his guest on several 
occasions, treated him on equal terms, and Edward's Queen, 
Philippa of Hainault, stood as godmother to Van Artevelde's 
infant son, Philip. Van Artevelde, in the course and develop- 
ment of his alliance with Edward, at last found himself in 
opposition to a considerable number of his fellow citizens on 
making to them the suggestion that Edward's son, the Black 
Prince, should be elected Count of Flanders. The proposi- 
tion was opposed to the medieval spirit of attachment to a 
reigning house, and riots in the town took place, during 
which Van Artevelde was assassinated by one Gerard 
Denys. The effect of this assassination was to give an 
impetus to, and confirm, the policy of alliance with England, 
which the victim of Gerard Denys had brought about. 

This alliance was destined to have far-reaching results. 
Edward introduced the woollen industry into the Eastern 
counties of England, and the city, which had sought a close 
alliance with him, rose speedily to a position of being the 
chief manufacturing town in Europe. 

By 1381 Philip Van Artevelde had risen to such position 
that he was appointed dictator by the Democratic party; and 
he gained greatly in power during the war he waged against 
the son of Count Louis, whose forces he defeated with great 
slaughter in a battle outside Bruges. After this Philip felt 
himself strong enough to grasp the position of Regent of 
Flanders. He was, however, not destined to hold this 
position long, as Count Louis, the son of Jacques Van 
Artevelde's old enemy, succeeded in obtaining a substantial 
aid from Charles VI. of France, and brought about the 
defeat of Philip Van Artevelde at the Battle of Roosebeke, in 



GHENT : ITS STORY 257 

1382. In this battle Philip was slain, and with his death 
may be said to have ended the local freedom of the cities in 
Flanders. It is quite true that for a long period the cities 
every now and again revolted against their sovereign, but 
they were obliged for the most part to submit to the rule of 
their Counts and the Burgundian princes, who ultimately 
inherited these dominions by marriage with the House of the 
Count of Flanders. 

From that period onwards the city became the capital of 
the Burgundian Dukes, and its history became intermingled 
with that of the House of Austria. 

Like its neighbour Bruges, Ghent suffered from the 
gradual silting up of its ancient waterways, and by the 
commencement of the nineteenth century practically all of 
them, except the Scheldt, had become impassable, necessitat- 
ing the construction in 1827 of the great ship canal to 
Terneuzen, which nowadays will admit large vessels ap- 
proaching two thousand tons burthen. This canal has 
served to some extent to preserve Ghent from the state of 
decay and commercial isolation which overtook Bruges. 
Unfortunately for Ghent, the outlet of this great canal lies 
in Dutch territory, and on account of the heavy tolls which 
are levied the waterway — which might be the cause of so 
much additional commercial prosperity — is very much less 
used than it otherwise would be. But after all, the city, 
which owes most of its present-day prosperity to its in- 
dustrial life and the manufacture of cotton, linen, machinery 
and leather, derives most of its importance from its central 
position on the Belgian railway system. 

Ghent has undergone far more modernization than has 
Bruges. But as one strolls through its streets one encounters 
even nowadays many interesting relics of its past, and 
many quaint corners rich in medieval buildings or with 
fragments of bygone architecture. The oldest part of the 
town is that lying on the island formed by the junction 
of the Lys and the Scheldt with their various backwaters. 
It was near this point, but somewhat beyond the Lys, that 
the Counts of Flanders first erected a strong chateau or 
castle known as the Gravenstein or Oudenberg, which was 
built about 868 by Baoudorain, or Baldwin of the Iron Arm, 
as a defence against Norman invaders. It was around this 
spot, rendered particularly suitable by reason of the presence 
17 



258 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

of two navigable rivers, that the early merchants and v^eavers 
gradually settled. 

One of the most important and prominent buildings in 
Ghent, from the sight of v^hich v^e have found it almost 
impossible to escape, is the fine Early Gothic belfry, which, 
though designed nearly a century earlier than that of 
Bruges (about 1183), was not erected until 1321-1339. The 
windows have been walled up, and unfortunately the taper- 
ing turret crowning the tower is modern and of iron. The 
huge gilded dragon which surmounts it is, by tradition, stated 
to have been brought back to Bruges from the Mosque of 
St. Sophia at Constantinople, by the Crusader Baldwin of 
Flanders, about the beginning of the thirteenth century. 
It is said to have been removed from its original home as 
a trophy by the burghers of Ghent, under the command of 
Philip Van Artevelde, after his defeat of Count Louis near 
the Minnewater at Bruges in 1382. Much dispute has raged 
round the question of the origin of the famous gilded dragon, 
which certainly strikes one as being of an Oriental type, but 
is claimed, owing to discoveries made by M. Vuylsteke, to 
have been made in Ghent, in 1380, although possibly based 
upon some Eastern model. 

From the summit of the belfry, which is about 385 feet in 
height, a very extensive and beautiful prospect unfolds itself, 
with the principal buildings and picturesque tree-bordered 
canals just below one, and beyond the city the level plain of 
Flanders spread out like a green-patterned carpet. On a 
clear day one can see beyond Bruges to Oudenarde on 
the one hand, and even discern Antwerp on the other. The 
chimes are almost as noted as those of Bruges, and are 
in our mind more musical. The belfry contains the famous 
bell known as Roelandt, or Roland, upon which appears in 
Flemish the inscription : " Myn naem isk Roelandt ; als ick 
cleppe dan is't brand. Als ic luyde, is't victorie in Vlaendern- 
land." Which, roughly translated, means : '' My name is 
Roland ; when I toll there is fire. When I ring there is 
victory in Flanders." The bell which now hangs in the 
belfry is not the ancient one cast in 1314. That was lowered 
and broken up by Charles V. in February, 1540, " to shatter 
the pride of the Gantois." 

At the foot of the belfry stands a small but ancient Cloth 
Hall, dating from 1424, a graceful Gothic edifice of the 



GHENT: ITS STORY 259 

Decorated Period. It has recently been restored not too 
wisely, and with somewhat too great completeness. 

To reach the Hotel de Ville one passes through the Marche 
du Beurre, or Butter Market. There is a doorway on the 
right near by the belfry, formerly the entrance to the town 
prison, which has recently been restored. In the gable of 
the latter is a famous eighteenth-century relief, known as 
the " Mammelocker," which was doubtless intended to inspire 
a feeling of charity in the passers-by for the poor prisoners. 
The panel is coarse in subject and in treatment, and certainly 
serves no decorative nor artistic purpose. 

The Hotel de Ville, which is amongst one of the most 
picturesque specimens of Gothic architecture in East 
Flanders, is divided into two portions. That in the Early 
Renaissance Style, which dates from about 1595-1628, is 
not only one of the earliest, but is also in many respects 
the best, example of this type of architecture in Belgium, 
chiefly because it retains certain interesting features of the 
local domestic building, such as the pointed gable ends and 
the projecting windows, with dormers, which are to be 
found on the main front. In its three stories, with their 
projecting half-colonnades, one sees three distinct types of 
columns — Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian — on the ground 
floor and first and second floors respectively. The other 
portion of the Hotel de Ville, erected from about 15 18- 
i535> from designs by Dominic de Waghemakere, has a 
very interesting and handsome balcony. The Gothic work, 
as a whole, is of the most florid character. The most 
likely expert criticism to be passed upon it is that it lacks 
dignity and grace, but is very attractive — at least, to the less 
educated eye — in its splendour of detail. The niches which 
have been filled contain quite modern statues of saints, of no 
particular merit. 

Noticeable features of this portion of the Hotel de Ville, 
which forms so fine an example of florid Gothic archi- 
tecture, are the beautiful entrance staircase and the main 
portal over it, with the exquisite little balcony, from which, 
in olden times, the orders of the Counts and other similar 
proclamations were read to the citizens summoned for this 
purpose by Roland in the belfry hard by. 

The large projecting window belonging to the chapel, near 
the centre of the fa9ade, is also well worth careful scrutiny. 



26o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

In the interior of the Hotel de Ville is a handsome Gothic 
staircase, which has seen many vicissitudes, having been 
taken out of the original building, erected in a private 
house, and then brought back and re-erected in its present 
position in the Hotel de Ville. There are also some inter- 
esting rooms and courts, which will repay the student who 
may have time to visit them. 

Quite close to the Hotel de Ville are several excellent and 
well-preserved examples of Early Domestic architecture, 
amongst them that known as the Cour St George, facing 
the Hotel de Ville, a Gothic structure belonging to one of 
the ancient guilds of the city. 

On the left-hand side of the Place at the corner, as one 
faces the Hotel de Ville, at the corner of the Rue Catalogue, 
stands the Church of St. Nicholas, the oldest in Ghent. It 
was founded in the eleventh century, but it would appear 
to have been rebuilt in Early Gothic Style about the years 
1390 to 1420. Its most distinguishing feature is its very fine 
Decorated tower, which happily escaped serious damage 
during the time of the religious wars, and the wild excesses 
of the iconoclasts, and the depredations and destruction of 
the French Revolutionary Army during its occupation of 
Belgium. It has also not been restored, usually a circum- 
stance for congratulation, unless such restoration is under- 
taken in the most sympathetic spirit, and is carried out by 
the most competent hands. The main front of the church 
faces the Koorn Markt, and over the door is to be seen a 
modern figure of the patron saint engaged in raising the 
three boys whose fate it was to have been salted down 
as meat. St. Nicholas was the patron saint of commerce, 
and was therefore, in the days of Belgium's medieval pros- 
perity, very popular. 

The interior of the building has been of recent years 
modernized, and is not particularly pleasing, and the carved 
pulpit is unusually ugly. The vaulting of the nave, aisles, 
and choir is covered with plaster, and the second-rate and 
gaudy decorations of the church do much to spoil what is in 
reality a fine interior. There are one or two pictures worthy 
of examination, "The Madonna and Child, with St. John," 
by Maes Canini, in the second chapel on the right, meriting 
special notice. 

On the fourth pillar of the north aisle in the nave is a 




< 

1—1 

< 

5 
z 

5 

PL. 



GHENT : ITS STORY 261 

record of the burial hard by of one Oliver Minsau and his 
wife, whose claim to immortality seems to be the fact that 
they had together one-and-thirty children. It was Oliver 
Minsau, accompanied by his twenty-one sons, who attracted 
the attention of the Emperor Charles V. on his entry into 
Ghent in the year 1526. Unhappily, very shortly afterwards 
the whole of this large family was carried off by plague. 

The picture of the altar-piece, which is by Liemakere, is 
"The Election of St. Nicholas as Bishop of Myra." It is 
not a particularly good composition, giving an impression of 
confusion to the beholder. 

The handsome Church of St. Michael, commenced in 1445, 
its Late Gothic windows closely resembling English Perpen- 
dicular work, with its unfinished tower, lies just across the 
Lys westward from St. Nicholas. This church, which was 
not completed till 1673, has its south side hidden by a former 
Dominican convent. Unfortunately, the fine west portal 
has been terribly mutilated, and the numerous statues which 
once adorned it removed. The interior has been of recent 
years greatly renovated. 

The choir is extremely handsome, and the impression 
created on the observer by the red brick walls, in contrast 
with the white window-frames and pillars, is very pleasing. 
In the north transept is Van Dyck's celebrated " Crucifixion," 
which was painted in 1630 for the Confraternity of the 
Holy Cross in Ghent. It was undoubtedly once a fine pic- 
ture, but has been greatly spoiled by successive restorations. 

Amongst the other pictures worth noting in this church, 
including some good works belonging to the Rubens school, 
are a Segher's " The Scourging of Christ," and a De Crayer, 
*' The Descent of the Holy Ghost," and one of the best of 
the latter artist's works, " The Assumption of St. Catherine." 
This church, it is interesting to remember, was one of those 
turned into a Temple of Reason at the time of the French 
Revolution, and during the occupation by the Revolutionary 
forces. 

The Cathedral Church of Ghent, dedicated to St. Bavon, 
stands at the south-east corner of the square of the same 
name. It is a massive, but rather plain, building, which was 
ultimately, and until 1540, dedicated to St. John. In 1559 
the building became the Cathedral Church of Ghent. 

St. Bavon would appear, from all that is known concerning 



262 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

him, which is not much, to have been of somewhat dubious 
hohness. He is legendarily described as a Duke of Brabant 
in the first age of Christianity in Flanders. From some 
accounts he is stated to have been a nobleman of Hesbain, 
Li^ge, who passed the greater part of his early life as a 
soldier of fortune, and in what are euphemistically described 
as ''worldly pleasures." However, at the age of about fifty, 
on the death of his wife, he became so overwhelmed with 
grief that he gave up all his possessions to the poor, and, after 
hearing a sermon by St. Amand, entered a monastery at 
Ghent, of which the latter was the founder. Of this 
institution the erstwhile soldier of fortune eventually became 
Abbot, but, finding the monastic life of the time not 
sufficiently rigorous to salve his conscience from the worldly 
pleasures and sins in which he had indulged, St. Bavon fled 
from his brethren and became a hermit, living in a hollow 
tree in the forest which in those days covered a portion of 
the land outside Ghent. The emblem which is associated 
with him is a falcon. 

To the ecclesiastics and burghers of Ghent about 1540 it 
seemed fitting that the then parish church of St. John should 
be re-dedicated to the local saint, whose relics were deposited 
in it on the destruction of the ancient Abbey of St. Bavon 
by Charles V. 

The great portal of the west front of the Cathedral was 
greatly defaced during the French Revolution, and its 
statues thrown down from the niches which they occupied. 
Three of them have been replaced. The central figure of 
these represents our Saviour, on the left hand of whom is 
St. Bavon, with his falcon and sword and book, emblematical 
of his legendary dual nature of duke and monk. He is clad 
in armour and wears a ducal robe. On the right of the 
central figure is one of St. John the Baptist, the first patron 
saint of the church. 

One feature characteristic of Continental Gothic architec- 
ture may be noticed from the south side, where one finds in 
the externals of the nave, aisles, and choir the rounded or 
apsidal terminations in place of the square end which usually 
goes with English Gothic architecture. 

The interior is somewhat disappointing as a whole, 
although the single aisles and short transepts in the Early 



GHENT: ITS STORY 263 

Gothic Style give to it a certain dignity. Its massive pillars 
and the height of its arches certainly give to it nobleness and 
a sense of spaciousness. 

The church has many fine pictures, the chief of vv^hich, 
the polytych, "The Adoration of the Lamb," the v^ork of 
Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, is not only one of their greatest 
masterpieces, but is by far the most important work of art 
possessed by Ghent. Unfortunately, it is seen at some con- 
siderable disadvantage in the church, and needs long and 
careful study before it can be thoroughly understood or 
appreciated. Besides being a v^onderful example of the 
painter's art, and crowded with interesting figures, it has 
additional importance from the fact that it forms the crux, 
as it were, from which a new departure in Flemish art was 
initiated. The greater part of the work is by Hubert, who 
has been called the inventor of oil-painting, but who, of 
course, has no real claim to that title, although he was the 
first artist to employ that particular process in its more 
developed form. The picture is contained in the sixth chapel 
of the ambulatory, which belongs to the Vydt family. The 
work as it now stands is not entirely that of the two 
brothers Van Eyck. The original outer and upper shutters of 
the interior, painted by Hubert, and representing Adam and 
Eve, were removed, it is said, at the instance of the Em- 
peror, Joseph II., owing to the fact that the figures of Adam 
and Eve on the shutters were nude, which fact, as a purist, 
he considered rendered them unsuitable for the decoration of 
an altar-piece. The lower wings, too, which, tradition states, 
were by Jan Van Eyck, have also been removed, and were 
purchased by the authorities in Berlin. In this case they 
have been replaced by very fair copies made in the early 
part of the sixteenth century by Michael Coxie, of Malines. 
The new Adam and Eve on the upper shutters are not copies 
of Hubert Van Eyck's work, but are different figures clad in 
skins. From many points of view other than that of senti- 
ment, it is a great pity that the removed portions of the 
altar-piece cannot be reassembled. The painting was com- 
missioned from Hubert Van Eyck by Josse Vydt, a wealthy 
inhabitant of the city, and his wife Isabella, somewhere 
about the year 1420. Hence its presence in this side chapel 
belonging to the family. 

On the death of Hubert, which occurred in 1426, the great 



264 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

work was still unfinished, and his brother completed it six 
years later. 

A note should be made of the rhyming hexameter inscribed 
upon the picture, in which the poet, whoever he may have 
been (it is improbable that the versification is by the painter, 
Jan Van Eyck), is made to assert his belief that his brother 
was a greater painter than himself. 

The subject of this wonderful picture as a whole is the 
" Adoration of the Lamb that was Slain," and seems to have 
been largely inspired and formulated by the passage from 
the Apocalypse which runs : " I looked, and behold a lamb 
stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him an hundred and 
forty and four thousand, having His Father's name written 
in their foreheads. And I heard the voice of harpers harping 
with their harps." And also: "I beheld, and lo ! a great 
multitude, which no man could number, clothed with white 
robes and having palms in their hands. These are they 
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them w^hite in the Blood of the Lamb. 
Therefore are they before the Throne of God ; and He shall 
feed them and shall lead them to living fountains of water, 
and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 

The chief figures and imagery of the central panel are the 
figure of the Lamb of God standing upon an altar hung with 
red damask and covered with a white cloth, whilst His blood 
is seen flowing into a crystal chalice. The Holy Ghost is 
seen descending upon Him in the form of a dove, and the 
Eternal Father appears in the central panel on top. Around 
the altar adoring angels with many-coloured wings are 
gathered, holding in their hands the instruments of the 
Passion, and in front of the altar two angels appear swinging 
censers. In the foreground is the Fountain of Life, from 
which pure water is flowing across the flower-bedecked fields 
of Paradise. Towards this centre four bands of worshippers 
are wending their way, emblematical of (a) the secular 
portion of the Christian Church ; (b) the religious as opposed 
to the secular half of the Christian Church ; (c) represents 
the Christian martyrs ; and (d) the Virgin martyrs, many of 
whom carry their palms of martyrdom in their hands, the 
two latter groups illustrating the words of the Te Deum, 
*' The glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellow- 
ship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, the Holy 




ca 



O z S 



GHENT: ITS STORY 265 

Church throughout all the world." In the more distant 
background are seen towered cities, possibly representing 
the artist's idea of the New Jerusalem, but, of course, 
Flemish, and not merely symbolical in character. 

Before proceeding to a brief description of the remaining 
portions, it may be noted that of the whole only the four 
pictures forming the centre of the triptych are original, 
all the rest being copies. The left wings, the originals 
of which are generally ascribed to Jan Van Eyck, now in 
the museum at Berlin, form a continuation of the scene 
of the Prophets and of the secular side of Christendom, 
which is depicted in the central panel. They represent in 
the first half the various Orders of chivalry, and of the knight- 
hood of the Middle Ages riding, as though on a pilgrimage, 
towards the central figure of the Lamb. At their head may 
be distinguished the soldier-saints — St. George, St. Adrian, 
St. Maurice, and St. Charlemagne — and especially to be 
noted for their admirable grace and truth to life are the various 
actions of the horses ridden by these figures. The outer half 
of the picture represents a group of burgesses and merchants, 
among whom two figures in the foreground are traditionally 
supposed to be portraits of the artists — Hubert riding the 
white horse, with Jan behind clad in a dark-brown robe 
trimmed with fur. These groups may be said to complete 
the idea of the secular world assembled together in adoration 
of the Lamb of God. The right wings, which are also copies 
by Michael Coxie, the originals of which are also in the Old 
Museum at Berlin, depict the hermits and pilgrims. All 
who have time to study this portion of the picture carefully 
will be able to pick out for themselves the well and less 
known medieval characters and saints appearing in it. But 
what should be especially noticed is the exquisite detail 
which characterizes both the architecture and landscape, the 
clarity of the sky, and the beautiful foliage of the trees, 
which give an additional charm to these wonderfully inter- 
esting groups and portraits. 

There are seven pictures in the upper tier, including the 
much-discussed figures of Adam and Eve. Of the remain- 
ing five the three central are by far the most important : for 
one reason, because it seems little to be doubted that they 
are the work of Hubert Van Eyck ; and, for a second reason, 
that they carry on a representation, as it were, of the central 



266 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

idea dominating the picture. The middle figure, dressed in 
white robes and wearing a white tiara or triple crown orna- 
mented with a profusion of gems, is generally supposed to 
be the figure of Christ. But several authorities incline to 
the view that this in reality is a representation of God the 
Father. The figure is wonderfully imposing, and the folds 
of the beautiful mantle which is worn, loaded down with 
precious stones though it is, fall from the shoulders down to 
the feet in simple and graceful folds. The hands are par- 
ticularly noticeable for their beautiful drawing, and the flesh 
colour, though bronzed in tone, is glowing and arresting. 
On the right hand of this central figure sits the Virgin, clad 
in her traditional robe of blue, and with her long fair hair 
bound round the forehead with a diadem. She is holding a 
book in her hand, and her expression is pensive, whilst her 
eyes gaze out calmly and untroubled upon the beholder. 
On the other side of the central figure is one of St. John the 
Baptist, long-haired and bearded, seated, and clad in long 
and flowing draperies. Next to him is a panel depicting 
Ste. Cecilia playing upon an organ, with a group of angels 
above her playing on other instruments. Beyond is the 
much-discussed panel depicting Eve, which took the place 
of the original already referred to, to which exception was 
taken. 

This wonderful composition contains upwards of two 
hundred figures, quite a number of which, in addition to 
those we have pointed out, can be easily identified by an 
intelligent and careful student. 

The wings, when shut, show panels (which are copies) 
painted in grisaille or in very low tones of colour, with the 
object of enhancing the jewel-like brilliance of the inner 
pictures. In the lower wings are representations of the Four 
Evangelists, set in niches as though in imitation of statuary; 
but these figures, it should be noted, were not so arranged in 
the originals. In the first or lowest tier of the upper wings 
the subject of the picture is the Annunciation. In the 
centre of this is an arcade, giving through it a glimpse of the 
city of Ghent as it was when the artist Hubert Van Eyck 
painted it ; indeed, the vista is traditionally stated to have 
been that seen from the window of the artist's own studio, 
which formerly stood on the site of the present Caf6 des 
Arcades in the Place d'Armes. To the right is the picture 



GHENT : ITS STORY 267 

of the Madonna reading, and, to the left, the angel Gabriel 
holding a lily in his hand. The dove is seen descending 
upon the Madonna's head. The painting is distinguished 
for a most curious blending of mysticism with the Flemish 
realism of the artist, who places the scene in his own city 
and with accessories of his own time. 

In the uppermost tier of all are to be seen two figures of 
the Sibyls. The paintings on the outer shutters are almost 
entirely different from the originals now to be found in 
Berlin. 

The history of this fine altar-piece, which has, as we have 
already indicated, been partially dismembered, is a romantic 
one. On completion it was placed in the family chapel of 
the donor, where it is now to be seen ; but during the Re- 
formation it was taken for security to the Hotel de Ville. 
After the capitulation of the town to the Duke of Parma 
it was once more restored to its original position in the 
Cathedral. King Philippe II., indeed, wished to carry it 
off, but ultimately contented himself with a copy made by 
Michael Coxie, a portion of which copy has been used to 
build up the present triptych. The offending panels of Adam 
and Eve, removed in 1784, were hidden at first in the 
sacristry, but ten years later the remaining portions of the 
triptych were carried off to Paris during the war of the Re- 
volution, and after the peace they were returned. But only 
the central portions were replaced in Vydt's chapel. The 
wings of the pictures, with the exception of those of Adam 
and Eve, were sold to a Brussels dealer named Solly, who 
eventually disposed of them to the then King of Prussia, 
who deposited them in the museum in Berlin. The original 
and hidden panels of Adam and Eve were then taken from 
their hiding-place, and the ecclesiastical authorities exchanged 
them with the Brussels Museum, which possessed the wings 
of Coxie's draped copies. 

Such is the history of this famous work of the Van Eycks, 
which has been more romantic and fuller of vicissitudes than 
that of most works of art of the kind.* 

Among the remaining chapels which contain objects or 
pictures of interest may be mentioned the tenth, containing 
a fine altar-piece by Rubens, the subject of which is St. 

* For a more detailed description see "The Early Flemish Painters" 
of Crowe and Cavalcaselle. 



268 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Bavon renouncing his worldly possessions on embracing the 
monastic life. He is still seen, however, attired as a Duke 
of Brabant of the seventeenth century, and attended by 
pages. He makes his profession at the door of a handsome 
Renaissance church, and is evidently being received with 
acclamation by a body of richly robed ecclesiastics, amongst 
whom appears St. Amand. Rubens is said to have painted his 
own features as those of the patron saint, and it certainly 
must be admitted that they bear a considerable resemblance 
to his portrait of himself in the gallery at Florence. This 
self-portraiture in their religious works was a feature or a 
failing of most medieval artists of the Flemish school. On 
the left of the picture are two ladies in rather bizarre court 
dresses, who are said to be portraits of the painter's two wives, 
although this does not seem borne out by comparison with 
authenticated pictures of them. This altar-piece, though a 
specimen of Rubens' freest and perhaps most flamboyant 
manner, cannot be said to fulfil the requirements of a sacred 
picture in that it fails to impress the beholder with any 
sense of religious feeling. 

The choir forms a very fine portion of this in many ways 
noble and well-proportioned building. The beautiful grey 
stone arches, dating from the fourteenth century, and the 
elegant triforium and fine brick vaulting, should all be 
noticed. The huge copper candlesticks which are in the 
choir, and bear the royal arms of England, belonged to 
Charles I., and came from his private oratory in old St. 
Paul's, London.* They were sold by order of Oliver 
Cromwell, and eventually found their way to Ghent. 

We have already indicated that the old city with its chief 
buildings, as well as the principal markets, was almost en- 
tirely placed upon the island which nowadays extends from 
the Palais de Justice on the south to the Botanical Gardens 
on the north, although it extended also to the smaller island 
on which stands the Church of St. Michael, and another on 
which stands the Chateau des Comtes. But by the end of | 
the Middle Ages, we are able to see from ancient plans, and 
gather from contemporary descriptions, that the city had 
assumed almost its modern proportions, and in all probability 
had a population exceeding that of the present day. Nowa- 
days, as is the case with Bruges, its old fortifications and 
* This is, however, disputed by some authorities. — C. H. 



i 



GHENT: ITS STORY 269 

ramparts have been done away with, and their places taken 
by tree-shaded boulevards and canals. 

Students in search of the ancient gate known as Le Rabot 
will have to traverse some of the most squalid streets of 
Ghent to find it. It is most easily reached from the Chateau 
des Comtes by way of the Rue des Bruges and the Rue du 
Rabot. It is quite worth seeing, although it now consists of 
little more than its two round towers and a high and 
picturesque gable end. On the outside of the gate is to be 
seen, in Old Flemish, an inscription recording the bravery 
of the Guilds which fought under Duke Philippe of Cleves 
in the year 1488, when the attack of the army of the Emperor 
Frederick III., made in the interests of his son Maximilian, 
was repulsed at this spot. It was in commemoration of this 
event that the fort and gateway were erected. 

To those who wish to see the industrial and the under- 
world life of the city of Ghent no better introduction could 
be had than the walk from the Place Farralilde, through the 
squalid streets of the district in which Le Rabot stands. 
But it is not an excursion to be recommended to ladies, 
or to those for whom unpleasant smells have usually 
bad results. 

Of the remaining objects of interest in Ghent itself, other 
than the Musee des Beaux Arts, a modern building opened 
in 1904, and containing some interesting pictures and groups 
of sculpture, may be mentioned the Palais de Justice, quite 
modern, and the Place d'Armes, or Couter, the ancient 
archery ground, now a pleasant and fashionable square, 
overshadowed by lime trees and on Friday and Sunday 
mornings a delightful and picturesque spot, by reason of its 
flower market. Hard by is the pleasant Caf6 des Arcades 
which occupies the original site of Hubert Van Eyck's studio. 

A more detailed notice, however, is demanded by the 
Chateau des Comtes picturesquely situate near the Place 
Farralilde, the Marche aux Poissons, and the ruined Abbey 
of St. Bavon in the south-eastern quarter of the town. 

This Chateau des Comtes, which forms one of the most 
interesting and well-preserved medieval buildings in any 
city in Flanders, is said to have dated from the ninth 
century, and to have been rebuilt towards the end of the 
twelfth by Count Philip of Alsace when he returned from 
the Holy Land, and was thenceforth the chief residence of 



270 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the Counts of Flanders. Surrounded by water on three 
sides at the present day, this strong, ancient, and most 
interesting building, with its huge white walls and turrets 
and quaint roof, has only comparatively recently been 
restored to something approaching its former- state. Here 
it was that Edward III. and his Queen, Philippa, were 
entertained by Jacques Van Artevelde, in 1399, ^^ such a 
sumptuous manner that it is said their stay, of but com- 
paratively few days, entailed an expense of something 
approaching a quarter of a million in present-day value 
of money. 

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the year 1407, 
the chateau became the seat of the Count of Flanders, 
appointed by Phillip le Bon of Burgundy. It long re- 
mained an important building, playing its part in the 
municipal life of the city and its vicissitudes down to the 
commencement of the nineteenth century, when it was 
strangely enough converted into a factory. In 1887, how- 
ever, the municipal authorities of Ghent realized that one of 
its chief historical and architectural treasures was being 
degraded and injured by the use to which it was then put. 
In consequence of this it was acquired by the city, and was 
to a considerable extent isolated by the removal of im- 
mediately adjoining buildings, so that its beauty and import- 
ance could be realized ; and under the direction of 
J. de Waele its interior, which had been seriously injured in 
the process of adapting it for commercial purposes, was | 
carefully restored. The donjon or centre portion of the 
building contains a large banqueting hall, and above that 
another room of a similar character. The space above 
this and beneath the roof was used as a store for the stones 
and other medieval implements including catapults, etc., 
used for the defence. The chateau is entered through the 
Romanesque portal of the projecting gatehouse, from the 
platform of which one gains a most admirable and unique 
view of the surrounding building and streets. The outer 
wall possesses no less than twenty -seven semicircular 
towers dating from the last quarter of the twelfth century. 

Several of the interior apartments still preserve many of 
their medieval features. One of the best examples is un- 
doubtedly the underground room near the gatehouse, in 
which is a very interesting example of Romanesque vaulting. 




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GHENT: ITS STORY 271 



The old fifteenth-century consistorium, now called the 
chapel, and the dungeon known as De Put, are perhaps the 
chief features of interest for the student, although, as a 
whole, the building is singularly complete, and forms a 
wonderfully preserved example of the semi-domestic archi- 
tecture of those distant times. 

In the south-eastern part of the town lies the ruins of the 
famous monastery of St. Bavon, well worthy of a visit from 
all who desire to make themselves acquainted with what is 
the oldest survival of the original city, or who wish to under- 
stand the development which took place during the Middle 
Ages onward. Ghent, as was the case with most other 
medieval towns, had beyond its outer walls quite a number 
of monastic institutions. And of all these, that of the 
Abbey of St. Bavon was the most famous. As one stands 
amidst the ruined cloisters of this once celebrated and 
beautiful abbey, it is not difficult to conjure up something 
of the institution which, from the ninth century onward to 
the time of its suppression, played so considerable a part, 
not alone in the life of the city, near the Antwerp gate of 
which it stood, but also in that of Flanders itself. 

The Abbey of St. Bavon, the remains of which are 
singularly beautiful and impressive, had not a few famous 
men at various times as its heads, amongst them Eginnard, 
the son-in-law and biographer of the Emperor Charlemagne 
in the ninth century. It was in this abbey, by reason of 
the facts that the Counts of Flanders had a right of 
hospitality. Queen Philippa gave birth to John of Gaunt of 
1340, although Oudeberg has often been mentioned as the 
place of John's birth. 

For some six centuries the abbey, ever growing in power, 
formed a centre of the religious, remedial, and educational 
life of the district, until in 1539 Charles V., who, ten or 
twelve years later, was a generous donor of 150,000 crowns 
to the Cathedral of St. Bavon, angered by the resist- 
ance of the burghers of the city to his wishes, dissolved the 
monastery in much the same arbitrary manner as were 
similar institutions done away with by Henry VIII. of 
England. Possibly Charles's conscience pricked him, or he 
was frightened by some of the powerful clerics of his day, 
for a few years after the destruction of the Abbey in 1539, 
he caused the relics of St. Bavon to be carried from the 



272 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

abbey to what was at that time the parish church of Ghent, 
dedicated to St. John, which ultimately became the Cathedral 
dedicated to the saint whose relics were deposited in it. 

The work of destruction of this Abbey of St. Bavon, which 
occupied a vast area of ground, was unhappily only too 
complete. 

The ruined abbey buildings have for their chief beautyj| 
the picturesque, partly Romanesque, but chiefly fifteenth- 
century, cloister, and through it one obtains a beautiful vista 
of the quadrangular garden, filled in summer-time with a 
perfect blaze of colour and most of the popular and homely 
Flemish flowers, many of which are those also beloved by 
English cottagers, and familiar in country gardens. 

The Chapel of St. Macaire, which is the name given to 
the octagonal Romanesque baptistery dating from about 
1 177, is worth study, and close by is the Chapter House, 
dating from about the first quarter of the thirteenth century, 
with a Transition portal and window openings. 

Unfortunately, this Chapter House is in a very ruinous 
condition. Hard by in the pavement are a dozen interesting 
tombs of red sandstone dating from the eleventh or twelfth 
centuries. In the chapel itself we noticed a fine piece of 
early vaulting, with rounded arches of Byzantine type. The 
capitals of the columns should be noted, as they have some 
very quaint representations of Adam and Eve in the Garden 
of Eden. And there is also an interesting relief of the 
missionary, St. Amand, preaching in Flanders, and a man at 
arms in stone of the sixteenth century about the time of 
Van Artevelde. 

The old refectory itself, which for a time served as the 
Church of St. Macaire, has been since a few years ago turned 
into a local museum containing an ancient fresco supposed 
to be of St. Louis; a tomb of a monk dating from about 
1275, on which is depicted one of the earliest representations 
of the Franciscan Order ; a very beautiful relief brought from 
Tournai dating from the middle of the fifteenth century, the 
subject of which is the Nativity; the tomb of Hubert Van 
Eyck, discovered in 1892, unfortunately very much damaged; 
and many other interesting fragments of Romanesque Gothic 
art and sculpture. 

On one's return to the town it is quite well worth while to 
take the pleasant and picturesque, though circuitous route 

I 



GHENT: ITS STORY 273 

across the bridges over the upper and lower Scheldt, through 
the Place Van Eyck to the Quai aux Vaches, and along 
this to the Place d'Artevelde and along the Rue Digue de 
Brabant. By this means one obtains a very good idea of 
the best portion of the more modern part of the city. 

Many other interesting and ancient buildings and spots 
may be found by the curious and enterprising visitor to 
Ghent. But space will not permit us to describe these in 
detail. One, however, that should undoubtedly be visited is 
the Old Steen of Gerard le Diable, near the Cathedral, 
which is chiefly interesting as being the only remaining 
example in the city of a medieval fortified house. It dates 
from the thirteenth century, and has been carefully restored. 
Now used as a depository for the provincial archives, it can 
be freely inspected by visitors. 

Near the Place d'Artevelde, a little to the north-east of the 
Gave dii Sud and reached by the Rue des Violettes, is the 
Petite Beguinage de Notre Dame, a most interesting institu- 
tion, now containing about 300 sisters and preserving its 
eighteenth-century character. Its original foundation dates 
from the middle of the thirteenth century. The beautifully 
clean and tiny houses which are ranged round the rect- 
angular grassed space, bordered with sheltering trees, form 
a very picturesque and pleasant sight. Each house pos- 
sesses its own patron saint, the name of which is inscribed 
above the door. 

The seventeenth-century church on the north-eastern side 
of the grassy, garden-like space contains a very famous 
winged picture, the "Assembly of the Saints," by Lucas 
Horenbault. 

The Grande Beguinage de St. Elizabeth formerly stood near 
the Porte de Bruges, or Gate of the Rabot, the only portion 
of which now standing there is its church, dedicated to 
St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The present Grande Beguinage, 
veritably a town in miniature, enclosed by a wall and moat, 
lies on the Antwerp Road some distance outside the city, to 
which place the institution was transferred in 1874, when the 
ground the ancient foundation covered became needed for 
city extensions, its present site being obtained for it by the 
good offices of the Due d'Arenburg. 

For many years Ghent had been noted for its lace and 
embroidery, which had hitherto been largely produced by 
18 



274 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

hand in the houses of the town and in the cottages of the 
surrounding country. These industries of late years were 
transferred to well-equipped and well-appointed factories, 
and were rapidly developed by the most modern and perfect 
machinery which capital could purchase. A new industry 
was also instituted, that of making agricultural and other 
machinery, for the manufacture of which the city has of 
recent years gained a considerable reputation. 

From a town which at the end of the eighteenth century 
contained less than 40,000 inhabitants, it has risen, as it 
were, from its ashes of ancient greatness to the position of a 
city boasting a population, with its suburbs, of nearly 
200,000. Not only is it nowadays distinguished as a great 
commercial centre, but as a picturesque and interesting town, 
and an attractive place in which to reside. 



J 



CHAPTER XI 

THE STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 

WHETHER one comes to what one writer has not 
inaptly called '^ dear dead Bruges " through the 
fertile, though flat piece of country which stretches 
between it and its ancient rival, Ghent; or from the sea, 
through at first sand-laden fields, cut into here and there by 
ditches filled with brackish water, the effect is the same. 
Once the environing waterways are crossed, and the Porte 
St Croix or Porte d'Ostende is passed, one finds oneself trans- 
ported into the midst of ancient things and a medieval 
atmosphere, that can — by the sympathetic soul at least — be 
literally, as well as metaphorically, felt. The charm of 
Bruges, its peace, its picturesque decay, its apparent aloof- 
ness from the outer world and the fret and fume of modern 
things, is at once apparent. 

If it be by night that one makes one's entry, as we did, 
from its eastern side, to meet men in armour in the ill-lit, 
ill-paved, narrow, and tortuous streets ; to see court gallants 
ruffling it in doublet and hose of satin or velvet ; fine ladies in 
trailing gowns of the fifteenth century, and wearing sugar- 
loaf head-dresses with depending veils ; or varlets in leather 
jerkins, would not come as a shock. There is, in a word, 
the atmosphere of old Nuremberg or Rotenburg about the 
town. 

No ancient city such as Bruges should be entered by way 
of the unromantic railway-line. The illusion of old-time 
peace and ancient things is very evanescent. It can be as 
easily destroyed in the mind as dew-spangled cobwebs by 
gambolling conies in the gorse on an October morning. It 
can even be checked from having existence. 

What, indeed, in common have railways and shrill whistles, 

275 



276 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

tootling horns, and touting cockers eager to secure victims to 
overcharge and drive clatteringly over cobbled streets long 
miles, when the hotel required is but just round the corner, 
with such a town as Bruges ? 

As we passed along through the silent and almost deserted 
streets leading by tortuous ways from the Porte St, Croix to 
the Grande Place, shadowy figures, their modernity of gesture 
and clothing veiled by a kindly blue-grey obscurity, flitted 
now and again into view. A belated little Sister of the 
Poor, with the white head-dress giving a ghostly touch to 
the flitting figure, and with her voluminous robe lost against 
the dark shadows of the street, crossed our path. Suddenly 
the carillon rang out — the chimes of the famous belfry of 
which Longfellow wrote : 

" In the market-place of Bruges 

Stands the belfry old and brown ; 
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, 
Still it watches o'er the town " — 

rang forth in sweet, thin notes of melody as though falling 
down to us from amidst the glittering stars of the evening 
sky, the music seeming to recall with mysterious distinctness 
the romantic story of the sleepy town. 

Into our mind crowded many memories of former visits, 
and of what we had learned of the " storied " as well as of 
the historic charms of the ancient buildings, narrow byways, 
and silent palaces of bygone days, so that it was with almost 
a shock that one came upon the Grande Place blazing with 
lights, and echoing with the tinkle of the pianos at the cafes 
and restaurants and the wail of the violins of a " ladies' " 
orchestra at the Cafe Sirene. 

Nasal American voices, and the loud laughter of tourists 
enjoying themselves, as though unconscious of their environ- 
ment and of all that was wonderful and beautified by the 
tenderness of a summer night, struck us with a sense of in- 
congruity, as though the modern restless life of Ostend, 
Brussels, or Paris had been transplanted suddenly to this 
time-worn and sleepy town. 

We would have sought an ancient, silent inn ; but these 
have passed away during the last two decades, and in their 
place are modernized tourist hotels, most of them neither 
much worse nor much better than those of other towns. To 
one of these we in due time came, leaving the quietude of 



il 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 277 

the ancient street in which it stood for the meretricious, 
gilded looking - glasses and money - making air of bustle 
within. 

But this modernized hostelry possessed one saving grace, 
as we discovered when we arose next morning, to find the 
ancient weather- and time-worn environing roofs bathed in 
soft, early morning sunlight. Our window possessed a 
wonderful view from the back of the house over the wild 
waste of ancient roofs and lichen-stained and crumbling 
walls, with a charming vista of the tower and spire of Notre 
Dame in the distance. 

Bruges (in Flemish anciently Brugge), half -hidden as it 
were in the great flat plain of Flanders which stretches to it 
from the sea, and beyond it still further inland, arose in the 
Middle Ages on a spot where many canals and waterways inter- 
sected, including the little River Reye, anciently navigable, 
but now merged in the canal. It was a place destined soon to 
become famous in commerce and art. Originally the capital 
town of a small countship, it in time grew to hold a proud posi- 
tion, and gained for itself the sounding title of " The Venice 
of the North." Where the Reye flowed in those times into 
the long-lost Zwin was one of the safest harbours in the Low 
Countries, and alongside the quays of Bruges and in the 
haven of Damme towards the sea in due time lay or rode at 
anchor the ships of most European and many extra-European 
nations. Even so early as the beginning of the thirteenth 
century it enjoyed the position of the central market of the 
great Hanseatic League. And houses still remain on its now 
almost deserted and tree-grown quays which were the 
palaces of merchants famous in their time, and the ware- 
houses of the world. Into Bruges came the rich fabrics of 
the East — the products of Turkish and even Persian looms ; 
the bales of English wool, shorn from Southdown and other 
noted herds, to be exported later on, after having been spun 
into the famous Flemish broadcloths which enjoyed an 
European reputation. From the then port of Bruges, too, 
were sent forth the laces for which the deft fingers of Flemish 
women have always been noted ; the tapestries and the linen 
spun from the flax of not far distant Courtrai. Very soon, 
with this great growth of medieval trade, canals were cut, 
and existing watercourses deepened so as to provide means 
of intercommunication with other then flourishing towns 



278 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

and cities — amongst them Ypres, Ghent, Furnes, Sluys, the 
French border town of Dunkerque — and with the North Sea. 

The beginnings of this commercial city were to be found 
grouped around the Grande Place, which was in those days, 
as still at the present time, the centre of the town, and in 
the neighbourhood of the Hotel de Ville on the Place du 
Bouy, and extended to the Church of St. Sauveur, now the 
cathedral church, and the Dyver. 

The greater enceinte, which was fortified in 1297, existed 
until the extension of the suburbs in i8gg, and formed a 
boulevard nearly seven kilometres in length. Upon the 
earthworks, thrown up at the end of the thirteenth century, 
numerous windmills were erected. All these, with the 
exception of two close to the Porte de Ste. Croix, have now 
disappeared. The uselessness of windmills from an in- 
dustrial point of view ultimately robbed the city of one of 
its most distinctive medieval features, which formerly many 
of the ancient Belgian towns had in common with those of 
Holland. The old ramparts nowadays have been turned 
into promenades and planted with lime-trees, chestnuts, and 
elms, where are also very picturesque gardens, the favourite 
walks of the more sedate inhabitants of the city. 

Bruges ultimately became a great market-place between 
Novgorod and the East, and during the thirteenth century 
the town was enriched by all the wealth that commerce was 
able to bring it. It also possessed important trading com- 
panies, and all the machinery necessary for the loading and I 
unloading of great ships. 

The countries of the Hanseatic League contributed not a 
little to this rapid commercial development. The Hansa of 
London, founded somewhere about the twelfth century, had 
been established by the citizens of Bruges. Twenty-two 
towns banded themselves together, and Bruges became the 
chief warehouse, or mart, of all the towns within the Hanse- 
atic League. By the fourteenth century the city had, within 
its boundaries, banks and agents of all the principal nations, 
and numerous consuls also had their residences there. In 
1456 the chronicles tell us no less than 150 foreign vessels 
came into the docks of Bruges on a single day. And at the 
commencement of the sixteenth century an old writer. Van 
Male, saw the same thing happen, and German traders alone 
bought at Bruges in one day no less than 2,600 pieces of 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 279 

cloth spun in the manufactories of Poperinghe and of Tour- 
coing for exportation to Poland and Muscovy. 

In the streets in those days walked merchant princes who 
rivalled in wealth and power those of London of two cen- 
turies later. The quays, now long since almost deserted 
except for artists and dreamers, were thronged with steve- 
dores, the seamen of many nations, bustling clerks with 
pens, ink-horns, and bills of lading, and the groups of 
curious idlers which are always found by the waterside. 
Early in the sixteenth century to Bruges came the brilliant 
and intellectual Court of the Dukes of Burgundy, which 
circumstance was destined not alone to affect the history and 
fame of the city of that day, but to exert an influence upon 
it which is felt even at the present time. It was when under 
the dominion of these famous Dukes that the rich burghers 
and the foreign merchant princes commenced to gather 
together within the confines of the city by means of generous 
patronage a group of notable painters, whose works are 
visited daily in this twentieth century by art lovers and 
tourists from all quarters of the world almost as though 
pilgrim shrines. It is to them, too, that Bruges owes not a 
few of the finest buildings, which are the pride of this city 
of pathetic decay. 

The periodical markets or fairs, existing probably prior 
to the time of Baldwin of Constantinople, and developed by 
Marguerite of Constantinople and by Guy de Dampierre, 
organized by admirably-drawn charters, contributed to this 
commercial movement, which had ultimately a development 
without parallel. The city then was the scene of activity 
almost equal to that of the great streets of London of to-day 
and the principal commercial quarters of Paris and Vienna. 
Speaking of this epoch and of its commerce, a well-known 
and distinguished writer on the period said : " The town 
presented an animated and prosperous sight. The markets, 
streets, and quays were thronged by crowds of busy people 
almost of all nationalities and of all classes, whilst a great 
number of the principal merchants came to Bruges from all 
parts of Europe. It was here that the battle of commerce 
was fought out, each one clamouring for attention and 
preference. Here were to be found those who bought hemp, 
Dutch flax, English wool, Spanish skins and hides, Italian 
silks, the sheeting and cloths of Brabant and of Flanders, 



28o THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the wines of France, Portugal, and Greece, the ironmongery 
and hardware of Germany, with a multitude of manufactured 
articles of horn, ivory, boxwood, and other woods, glass, iron, 
pewter, leather, brass, silver and gold. In the middle of 
the market were to be seen the richest merchants of the 
Hanseatic League, who were recognizable by their elegant 
costumes and by the badges of their powerful guilds. On 
the outskirts were gathered an unbroken line of money- 
changers, the tables of whom shone with piles of the currency 
of all nations. 

*' Bruges was truly called the Venice of the North, situate 
on the banks of an arm of the sea which ran through its 
marshes, as is the other Venice on its lagoons, glorying the 
one and the other in their artistic splendours, and gathering 
to themselves the commerce of all the then known world, 
where was to be found heaped together the riches of 
Europe, Africa, and of Asia." It, by this epoch, had an 
estimated population of nearly 200,000 souls. 

In the immediate neighbourhood 50,000 workmen found 
employment, the most part in the manufacture of cloth. 
And cloth merchants, mercers, and brewers formed the chief 
of the nine members of the Town Council. The weavers of 
wool, the fullers, the shearers and dyers, formed amongst 
themselves the second members of this body. Such cor- 
porations or guilds were in reality the under-vassals of the 
city, having their military and financial duties, their political 
and industrial rights, sharply defined. 

The story of the decline of proud, prosperous, and richly- 
dowered Bruges would form a long, romantic, and pathetic 
volume in itself ; but we may briefly mention as the principal 
cause of this decline the silting up of the Zwin^ a general 
term given to creeks on the Belgian sea-coast, but one more 
especially attached to the great arm of the sea which put 
Bruges in communication with the North Sea by way of 
Sluys. 

Already in 1410 navigation between Bruges and Sluys had 
become difficult. In 1470 large ships were no longer able to 
reach Damme, and five years later the port of the city had 
almost disappeared under the alluvial deposits. One can 
see what had happened to the Zwin in the year 1562 by an 
examination of the plan of Mark Gheeraerts. 

About the commencement of the fifteenth century we see 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 281 

thetownof Bruges struggling during a period of a hundred years 
against the silting up of the channel and harbour. Number- 
less committees of inquiry were formed for the purpose of 
discovering the cause of the evil, and feasible remedies, but 
in those days committees and plans do not appear to have 
resulted in any serious grappling with the insidious enemy 
which was destroying the prosperity of Bruges. 

There were other secondary causes, however, which tended 
to paralyze the commercial enterprise and energy of Bruges. 
First of these were the violent insurrections against Maxi- 
milian, which have been put down as a great cause of the 
decadence, but which did not, after all, exercise more than 
a temporarily disastrous influence. Another cause, much 
more serious, was the gradual break-up of that great trading 
organization, the Hanseatic League, and more especially the 
disorganization and disbanding of the towns forming the 
German League, which had great trading interests and a 
bank at Bruges in the sixteenth century. They had, at the 
zenith of its prosperity, more than 300 agents there, who 
were held in high esteem, and from whom several illus- 
trious German families trace their origin. 

However, in the last years of the fifteenth century the 
Hanseatic towns lived in a state of dissension, and the 
quarrel had the effect of greatly weakening the Confederacy. 
The prestige of the League, whose principal members trans- 
gressed, declined in the eyes of the German people and 
rulers, and its bank became insolvent. The rules and regu- 
lations which in the past had made it powerful were now 
disregarded, and, in spite of the privileges which had been 
granted it, Amsterdam and Antwerp obtained the commerce 
of which Bruges had formerly the monopoly in the country, 
and, in consequence, merchants began to emigrate and settle 
in these towns. Another cause of the Belgian city's decline 
was the rise into prominence and prosperity of the great 
English ports of London, Bristol, and Southampton, in 
particular. 

Yet another cause was the discovery of America, which 
brought about a very profound change in the method of 
commerce, and led to the commercial world adopting a new 
system of transacting business, which may be said to have 
marked the beginning of the modern era. 

Bruges did not adapt itself to the required changes. 



282 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Its commercial organization remained out of date, and 
incapable of contending against the new methods brought 
about by the employment of a large amount of capital. 
Moreover, the city had no longer its own mercantile marine, 
which it had neglected since the thirteenth century. 

But another cause of decadence must also be pointed out, 
which has not yet been referred to, but the influence of 
which cannot be over-estimated. We refer to the religious dis- 
sensions. These, according to a well-known English writer, 
who has made a study of the migration of industrial life and 
decline of trade in certain European medieval towns, gave 
the last blow to the commercial and financial prosperity of 
Bruges. From about the years 1567-1584 most disastrous 
intrigues disturbed the city almost continually. It was 
especially about the year 1577 that these became most for- 
midable. The Bishop of Bruges, Henri Drieux, was taken 
prisoner and incarcerated at Ghent. The churches of the 
surrounding country were, many of them, pulled down, and 
the city itself opened its gates to Ryhove in March, 1578. 
The conqueror placed an heretical magistrate at the head 
of affairs, who chiefly favoured his co-religionists. The 
churches of the city were given over to pillage, several 
monks and nuns were burnt alive, others were banished, and 
fanaticism pursued its work of destruction by defacing the 
images and smelting down the bells. 

Thus, in the middle of all these troubles, the town gradually 
became almost abandoned. In the records of the period, 
which have been preserved, occur the names of the important 
inhabitants and families, many of them nobles and merchant 
princes, who left Bruges at this time, for the most part never 
to return. 

They were of all nationalities, and the disaster of their 
emigration was not repaired at the peace of 1584 ; in 
addition to which, fifty years of uncertainty followed this 
peace, with the coming and going of armies, accompanied by 
numerous skirmishes and battles, and the commerce of the 
country, which only prospers in peace, finally fixed upon 
Antwerp as a most tranquil centre. 

This briefly, then, is the history of the downfall of Bruges. 

Thus it will be seen that the city reached its zenith of 
glory in the fifteenth century. The magnificence distinguish- 
ing the Court of the Dukes of Burgundy, which was held at 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 283 

Bruges, the wealth of the noble families and the rich mer- 
chants, and the artistic taste and enterprise exhibited by all 
classes of the population, contributed to a large extent to 
enhance the fame with which the city shone at this epoch. 
Before long, however, of all this wealth and prosperity 
there was scarcely a remembrance. 

Happily, the hour of awakening would appear to have 
come at last to Bruges, owing partly to the reopening up of 
its communication with the sea by the establishment of a 
port in deep water on the coast between the flourishing 
seaside resort of Blankenberghe and Heyst, and by a deep 
and direct maritime canal, and other similar works. In the 
year 1902 seagoing ships arrived at Bruges for the first time 
after a long period. 

The Canal Maritime^ leading from the new seaport of 
Zee-Brugge to Bruges, is some 250 feet in width and about 
25 feet deep. It was constructed during the years 1895-1905, 
at the immense cost of £1,750,000. It has not yet, how- 
ever, had the effect anticipated of reviving the commerce of 
Bruges to anything approaching its former prosperity and 
greatness. There is another canal, leading from Bruges 
to Ostend, but few vessels nowadays are seen traversing it, 
though ships of 500 tons and under could do so. The few 
we have observed along this almost deserted waterway 
always appeared to be rather engaged in local and internal 
than seaborne trade. 

The royal proclamation of July 12, 1899, incorporated 
with the territory of the city the commune of St. Pierre, on 
the seashore, and of parts of the communes of Coolkerke, 
Dudzeele, Uitkerke, and Lisseweghe, so as to guarantee to 
the town of Bruges an outlet on the sea at the harbour Zee- 
Brugge, which latter name is, however, an anomaly, meaning 
in Flemish " Sea Bridge." The better term, of course, 
would be, in Flemish, Brugge- A an-Zee, or, in French, 
Bruges-sur-Mer. 

The city of to-day is but half the size of that fair town of 
the early sixteenth century ; its population possibly not one- 
fifth. Most of the great palaces of the foreign and other 
merchants of the Hanseatic League have fallen gradually 
into decay, and many have by now disappeared. But there 
is much of interest still left, of domestic as well as ecclesias- 
tical architecture, and behind the curtained windows of the 



284 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

greater houses of the burghers — the ancestors of some of 
whom were great merchant princes of the Middle Ages — is 
led a Hfe of seclusion strangely out of keeping with the 
century in which we live, but equally strangely in keeping 
with the atmosphere of the ancient town, its deserted quays, 
silent by-streets, and air of eternal peace and age. 

Amongst the most famous of artists who lived in the 
city in the golden age of Bruges may be mentioned Hans 
Memlinc, from about 1477-1494 ; Jan Van Eyck, who lived 
there between the years 1428 and 1440; Colard Mansion, 
the famous printer of Bruges, and one of the leaders in the 
typographical art. Last, bat by no means least, Caxton, the 
first English printer, who lived at the English factory known 
as the Domus Anglorum for a period of thirty years from 
1446- 1476. Caxton was originally an English merchant 
settled in the city, and it is supposed (although it must be 
recorded that several authorities incline to the belief that 
Cologne was the place) that the earliest printed book in 
English was issued from the press at Bruges. 

The commercial decay of the town to which we already have 
referred had caused many of its most splendid monuments 
to fall into ruins, and the fury of the Protestant iconoclasts 
of the sixteenth century continued the work of destruction. 
To gain even a faint idea of what Bruges was at the height 
of its splendour, it is necessary to see the picture of the 
city engraved in 1562 by Mark Gheeraerts, of which the 
town still possesses the copperplate. ' 

Most of those who wish to study and know the grey old 
city, we fancy, turn their steps at first to the Grande Place, 
or in Flemish Groote Markt, nowadays the centre of the* 
life of the town, and formerly the forum and meeting-place 
of the burghers when they were summoned to arms by the 
belfry chimes to repel an attack upon the town, or to set 
forth upon one of their numerous expeditions against 
neighbouring cities. In the centre of the square is a morej 
than life-size modern group of the Flemish heroes, Pieterj 
de Coninck and Jan Breidel, by the sculptor Paul Devigne. 
These two men were masters of Guilds, and the leaders of 
the citizens at the massacre of the French garrison on 
May 8, 1302, which event assisted the Flemish to gain their 
freedom from the yoke of the Kings of France. They also 
were two of the leaders of the burgher forces at the Battle 




S. URSULA ARRIVES AT COLOGNE 

HANS MEMUNC 
5. yohu's Hospital , Bruises 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 285 

of Spurs outside the walls of Courtrai, on July 11 the same 
year. 

The beautiful and historic belfry which overshadows the 
Grande Place, was, in a sense, the sign-manual of Bruges' 
freedom. Permission to erect such a belfry as an evidence 
of independence, and for the purpose of summoning the 
citizens to arms on occasion, was one of the first privileges 
which the German trading towns always sought in the 
Middle Ages from their feudal lords. The present tower — 
to the three-times destruction of which reference has already 
been made — replaced the first one of wood, and was com- 
menced in or about the year 1291. It took a century to 
build. The octagon is of stone, not of brick, as is the rest of 
the buildings, and in it is hung the famous carillon. The 
Halles which adjoin the belfry were undoubtedly built prior 
to the year 1239, ^^^ comprised two parts, both of them 
raised or erected upon pile work or the filled-up bed of the 
Boterbeke near the Reye. These buildings have been 
several times altered and repaired, especially during the 
sixteenth century. Indeed, the windows of the first floor 
are the only ones which preserve anything of their primitive 
form. 

It was between the two main buildings that the brick 
belfry was erected, with a wooden campanile, in the 
thirteenth century. The latter was burned in 1280, when 
the bells in their fall broke the vaulting of the roof of the 
room in which were kept the communal archives in the 
tower. The work of rebuilding and repairing commenced a 
few years later, and was finished, it is generally believed, about 
1296, the new bells being placed in position during the years 
1294-1299. Until the fifteenth century the belfry consisted 
only of two quadrangular stories flanked by turrets, and 
covered with a saddle-shaped roof. The lantern and elegant 
octagonal stone campanile dated from 1482-1486. A spire 
forty- five feet high, the contract for building which is still 
preserved, was erected in 1483- 1484. This was crowned two 
years later by a statue of St. Michael 16 feet high, hold- 
ing in its hand a cross and floating banner, and with its foot 
on a dragon about 15 feet in length. The tower was struck 
by lightning on January 25, 1493, and the spire destroyed. 
The latter was restored in the taste of the day at the com- 
mencement of the sixteenth century, crowned by the Lion 



286 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

of Flanders. In 1741 the spire was once more destroyed by 
lightning, and it has never been rebuilt. The topmost 
balustrade, placed there in 1822, was restored in 1901. 

It will scarcely be noticed, perhaps, save by the keen 
observer, but the tower has an inclination out of the per- 
pendicular towards the south-east amounting to about 
eighteen inches, which has been the case — according to 
documentary evidence — since its first erection. The lower 
windows are of the simpler form of Early Gothic architecture, 
those in the octagon are of a later period. In the centre is 
a recess containing a figure of the Virgin and Child placed 
there in 1819 after the destruction of an earlier group by the 
French during the early part of the war following the Revo- 
lution ; and below it are smaller figures bearing escutcheons. 
It was from the balcony between these that in ancient times 
the laws promulgated by and proclamations of the Counts of 
Flanders were read to the townsfolk assembled for the 
purpose in the Grande Place below. 

This statue of the Virgin, and those upon the Halles and 
Hotel de Ville, and upon most of the ancient monuments, on 
the bridges and at the corners of the streets (many of them 
remaining to the present day) gave to Bruges in the Middle 
Ages the name of " the town of Mary," or, in Flemish, Maria- 
stad. 

From the summit of the belfry, which should be ascended, 
notwithstanding the four hundred and two steps by which 
this coign of vantage must be reached, is a most interesting 
and far extending panoramic view not only of the quaint 
old town, with its slumberous waterways, tortuous streets, 
historic buildings, and picturesque roofs, but of the Plain of 
Flanders, dotted over with towns and villages. Seen thus, 
from an altitude of upwards of 350 feet, the surrounding and 
distant country, which when one is travelling through it 
seems flat and rather uninteresting, looks much more beauti- 
ful and picturesque. High above the town one can the more 
easily imagine the use and importance of such a watch-tower 
in ancient times, more especially before the invention of fire- 
arms of large calibre and precision. From this look out the 
whole country to the seacoast, the approaches of the town 
by water from Sluys and Damme, the network of canals, the 
roads leading to and from Ypres, Courtrai, Tournai, Ghent, 
Antwerp, and other smaller towns, lie spread out as though 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 287 

on a large scale plan. No one, not even a solitary horseman, 
could approach the town by daylight from any quarter with- 
out his presence being immediately observed. 

One can easily imagine with what anxiety the sentinels 
and look-out men scanned the roads and canals in the 
troublous days of the French domination, and later on when 
an English army was before Ypres, and over-running the land, 
and still later, when the French Republican forces crossed 
the frontier, and brought death to the inhabitants of Bruges 
and Ghent, and destruction to many of the historic ecclesi- 
astical buildings. 

The famous carillon, or chimes, date only from the year 
1680, and the mechanism which works them from a century 
later. The original bells were more than once destroyed on 
the occasions of the burning of the spire and upper portion 
of the belfry. 

The HalleSf built about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, stand on either side of the belfry, and form a some- 
what severe though very fine example of Early Gothic archi- 
tecture. The left-hand wing or portion of the building was 
formerly the Cloth Hall, recalling to mind the days when the 
manufacture of woollen goods was one of the chief industries 
of Bruges and its commercial and industrial rival Ghent. 

Though as late as 1830 the aspect of the town was very 
much as in medieval times, since then unfortunately quite a 
number of the older gables and houses have been destroyed, 
amongst them some of the most beautiful. Each year 
unhappily the bad taste of certain owners and tenants of the 
more ancient houses has led to other interesting architectural 
features being done away with or so modernized for purposes 
of trade, or other reasons, as to be entirely spoiled. 

In spite, however, of all this the town does not lack 
picturesque corners. 

There is, indeed, scarcely a street which does not still con- 
tain a remarkable house-front, or maybe, some detail of con- 
struction or carving, stonework or ancient doorways, in which 
the town is so rich, worth the attention of visitors. Bruges, 
of all cities of Belgium, it may be claimed is one which has 
best preserved its medieval aspect, and it may very well be 
called the Nuremberg of Flanders. In artistic reputation it 
certainly surpasses even that celebrated Bavarian city. 

Around the Grande Place are grouped many houses worthy 



288 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

of careful examination. Some of them, it is true, are modern 
re-erections or considerably restored, but in both cases the 
work has been usually well done, and the new buildings are 
in character with the surviving ancient ones. It is almost 
impossible to realize as one rambles round this wide, open 
space, that in the Middle Ages seagoing ships of considerable 
burthen were able to come close up here to discharge and 
take in their cargoes, bringing wool and other raw material, 
and taking away the woollen goods and linen for which the 
town was especially famed, and the Eastern merchandise 
which had been brought to Bruges, as the mart of Northern 
Europe. 

Among the chief buildings to be noted is the square, castle- 
like house which stands at the corner of the Rue St. Amand, 
formerly belonging to the Bouchoute family, and having 
additional interest from the fact that it is traditionally sup- 
posed to have been occupied by Charles II. during his exile, 
after the Battle of Worcester, about the year 1656. Whilst 
living at Bruges the citizens gave the exiled King of England 
the title of *' King of the Guild of Archers," one of the most 
ancient and honourable connected with the town. Both he 
and his two brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, 
resided at Bruges. The house in which they are said to 
have lived is a handsome one, and one of the best medieval 
brick buildings in Bruges, but it was indifferently restored 
about 1850. The fa9ade is adorned with a golden lion, an 
example of the many symbols to be found on houses in 
Bruges, in addition to the Lion of Flanders, crowned, 
and wearing a collar with a pendant cross, the Toison d'Or, 
or '' Golden Fleece," the badge of the famous Order, 
founded in 1430 by Philippe le Bel, and of singular appro- 
priateness to a country which in medieval times owed so 
much of its wealth and commercial greatness to wool. The 
device consists of a sheep's skin suspended from a collar. 
The Flemish emblem of a swan also frequently appears in 
decorative work ; and the Bear of Bruges is another, which 
one comes across on the fa9ades of old houses, in carvings, 
and elsewhere. The emblem of St. Donatian, the patron 
saint of Bruges, Archbishop of Rheims, consists of a wheel 
and five lighted candles. This, too, is frequently seen. 

Another historically interesting house is that next door to 
the one supposed to have been occupied by Charles II. It is 




THE DEATH OF S. URSULA 

HANS MEMLINC 
5. yohn's Hospital, Bruges 



nj 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 289 

known as the Crane7tburg, and was the residence of Maximilian, 
King of the Romans, for a period of some twelve days from 
February 4 or 5, 1488. 

The King was virtually a prisoner of the citizens of Bruges 
because he would not redress the many grievances they had 
against him, and refused to give up his son Philip, who was 
heir to ^\e crown of the Netherlands, into the custody of 
Charles VIII., King of France. Maximilian was afterwards 
removed to the Gruthuise, the celebrated residence of Jean 
Ros, whence, a short while afterwards, he went forth into the 
square to take the oaths required of him by the citizens, re- 
garding amongst other things the bringing back of his son 
Philip to Flanders, and the granting of a general amnesty. 

For the occasion an altar was raised on the very spot 
where a few days previously Maximilian's friends and 
advisers, Jacob Van Dudzeele, Lord of Ghistelle ; Gilbert du 
Homme, a Norman; Jan Van Nieuwenhove, and others, had 
been executed. We are told that near by was erected also a 
magnificent throne, or dais, overshadowed by a splendidly 
embroidered canopy. On the altar itself was placed a Book 
of the Gospels, and set amid flaming candles the Host itself, 
a portion of the true Cross, and the relics of St. Donatian. 
Kneeling before this, and (we are told by a contemporary 
writer), seemingly with great fear and reverence Maximilian 
took the appointed oaths. In a voice which, it has been 
recorded, was sweet and persuasive, and capable of ''melting 
a heart of stone," he declared : *' Of our own free will we 
swear and promise in good faith on the precious body of 
St. Donatian, and on the Canon of the Mass, to fully carry 
out the treaty of peace, and the alliance which we have con- 
cluded with our well-beloved estates. . . . And on our 
princely and royal word, on our honour, and on our faith, 
we hereby promise never to violate it." Then the Bishop of 
Tournai solemnly pronounced a blessing upon all those who 
should keep the treaty so agreed upon, and cursed those who 
should break it. This impressive and historic scene was 
followed by a Te Deum in the Church of St. Donatian, and a 
banquet. Philippe of Cleves, who had only just then reached 
Bruges, took the oath to assist all the Flemish people against 
those who should break the treaty, and then Maximilian was 
once more free to depart to his own chateau at Maele, after 
an imprisonment which had lasted nearly three months. 
19 






290 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Four days later, Maximilian, having entrenched himself 
behind the impregnable walls of the fortress of Hulse, felt 
himself secure enough to issue a proclamation, stating that 
he would not hold himself bound to observe the treaty nor 
to perform the oaths he had taken. 

Such, then, was one of the most stirring incidents con- 
nected with the history of the city, and one which throws a 
strong light upon the standard of princely morals and the 
intrigues of the Middle Ages, when men's oaths, even of the 
most solemn character, were often lightly taken and easily 
broken. 

It is with little wonder we read that, once more deceived 
by Maximilian, the Flemings were soon in revolt, and the 
call to arms was sounded throughout Flanders. 

The conduct of his kinsman, Philippe of Cleves, is in 
bright contrast to that of Maximilian himself. Let Philippe 
speak from the pages of the letter he wrote on hearing of 
Maximilian's breach of faith. 

" My lord Prince," it ran, ** fulfilling my oath, and for fear 
of offending God our Creator, I have promised to aid and 
assist the three provinces of Flanders. This with very great 
regret of heart I now inform you of, for inasmuch as it 
toucheth your exalted person as your most humble kinsman, 
I would fain do you all service and honour. But inasmuch 
as it toucheth the observance of my oath I am bound to God, 
the Sovereign King of kings." 

The story of Bruges is full of the clash of arms, the 
intrigues which afflicted Europe throughout the Middle Ages, 
the treachery and noble deeds which disfigure and adorn 
the pages of all history. But for a detailed recital of them 
w^e have no space here. 

To Louis de Maele, Count of Flanders, Bruges owes one 
of its most gracious and beautiful architectural treasures, 
the Hotel de Ville which stands on the south side of the 
Place du Bourg. By many, this delightful specimen of 
Middle Gothic architecture, which at once fascinates the 
student, is considered the most perfect building of its kind 
in Northern Europe, though doubtless this claim will be 
disputed in the future as it has been in the past. The 
foundation stone was laid by Louis on January 4, 1376. 
And three years later the building was almost completed. 
One Gilles de Man was at that date busy painting and 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 291 

gilding the statuary which so profusely adorns it, and for 
which work we are told the artist received the sum of 
seven livres and fourteen escalins. The completion of the 
work was, however, soon after delayed, for early in the 
following year trouble arose with the neighbouring city of 
Ghent, and there appears good reason to believe that the 
beautiful building was not finished till about the year 1420. 
Who the architect was seems uncertain, although a very 
eminent antiquarian, Verschelde, for some time the architect 
to the corporation of Bruges, suggests Jean de Valenciennes, 
who it is known designed and executed the sculpture on the 
building, much of which was destroyed at the time of the 
French Revolution, and has since been replaced by the 
work of quite modern Belgian artists. 

The chief feature of interest for students of architecture 
in the fa9ade of the building is the arrangement which 
appears to have originated at Bruges of long panels or 
arcades in which are placed windows one above the other 
in such a manner as to give them the appearance of being 
a series of long single windows reaching from the basement 
to the spring of the roof. 

In the lower tier of sculpture one is able to distinguish 
the Annunciation on the right and left of the doorway, with 
other figures of the prophets and saints. In the upper tiers 
stand statues of the Counts of Flanders, whilst the reliefs 
placed just below the windows of the first floor represent 
incidents in Biblical history — among them the Building of 
Solomon's Temple, David before Saul, and the Judgment of 
Solomon. 

The roof of the great Hall should be specially noticed, as 
it is a very fine example of pendent Gothic wooden work. 
'The corbels, dating from 1397-1402, represent the twelve 
months of the year. The keystones of the vault, which 
^was painted in 1404, are of Biblical scenes and figures of 
saints. There are some fine historical paintings by the late 
•Albrecht de Vriendt (1843-1900) and his brother Julius, to 
'whom the task of completing the scheme of Albrecht's work 
'was confided. The subjects of these pictures, which deal 
'with the civic, ecclesiastical and commercial history and 
•incidents in the development of Bruges, are particularly 
^worth study, and will in themselves give the careful observer 
a vivid and fairly accurate idea of the life of the city in 



292 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

medieval times, and of the history and romance bound up 
with it. Among the chief subjects we may mention in 
passing "The Mass of Bruges," "The Foundation of the 
Order of the Golden Fleece," The Consecration of the Zwin 
Canal," in 1402; "The Magistrates and City Fathers Visit- 
ing the Studio of Jan Van Eyck," in 143 1 ; " Theodoric of 
Alsace bringing the Holy Blood to the Church of St. Basil," 
in 1150; "Count Louis Van Maele laying the Foundation j 
Stone of the Hotel de Ville," and " The Officials of Bruges • 
renewing the Rights and Privileges of the Hanseatic 
League," in 1307. 

There are two interesting buildings adjoining the Hotel de 
Ville. The one to the left is the Maison de VAncien Greffe 
Flamandy or the old Municipal Record Office, now a court of 
law. It is chiefly interesting from the fact that it was the 
second building erected in the city in the style of the Re- 
naissance in 1535-1537. Of the first, erected in 1495, nothing 
now remains. The frontage of the surviving building had 
been allowed to fall into decay before the time of the French 
Revolution, and at the sack of Bruges the work of destruction 
was almost completed. The French pulled down the statues 
which were the work of Guillaume Aerts, and much defaced 
the rest of the carving and sculptures of the fagade. The 
building was restored during the seventies, and the portions 
which had been decorated in colours in 1537 were renewed 
according to the original design so far as ascertainable from 
the faint traces remaining. The Court-room, which has been 
decorated in good taste, deserves a visit, and the old door- 
way, supposed to be the work of Lancelot Blondeel in 1544, 
was formerly in the Cathedral. 

The famous Chapelle du Saint Sang stands to the right 
of the Hotel de Ville, but of the original building of Theo- 
doric of Alsace, who was elected Count of Flanders in 11 28, 
only the lower floor remains. Over this in the fifteenth 
century was erected a second and more ornate structure (as 
was also the case with the Sainte Chapelle of St. Louis of 
France in Paris) in which nowadays is preserved the Holy 
Blood which Theodoric brought back with him from Pales- 
tine in 1 149. These drops of blood of our Saviour were said 
to have been preserved by Joseph of Arimathea, and were 
obtained at fabulous cost by Theodoric, and by him given 
to the city of Bruges. The church is dedicated to St. Basil, 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 293 

a Greek monk little known in the West of Europe, who was 
the founder of Eastern monasticism. Nearly all the decora- 
tions and works of art in this beautiful little Chapelle du Saint 
Sang have some reference to the Holy Blood, its miraculous 
preservation, and incidents which occurred during its trans- 
port to Bruges. 

The portal and staircase in the Flamboyant Style, with 
what an American girl once called its " wishing-bone arches," 
are wonderfully beautiful, and cannot fail to excite the ad- 
miration of even those who know little or nothing of the 
science or history of architecture. There is a fine figure of 
St. Leonard with his symbolic fetters under a Gothic niche 
on the exterior of the building. 

During the troubles in the days of Philip II., and even 
more during the unsettled times of the French Revolution, 
the chapel suffered greatly. About 181 8 it was restored, after 
its lower portion had been used for years as a common prison 
for disorderly persons, drunkards, and even dogs, and having 
narrowly escaped entire demolition on account of the parlous 
state of decay into which it had fallen. The decorations and 
restoration, though effective, are not in the best taste, and are 
somewhat bizarre in character. It is a pity that the Noble 
Confrerie dii Precieux Sang — which to-day consists of a pro- 
vost and thirty members, all of whom must be of noble birth 
— do not undertake at least the redecoration of this interest- 
ing chapel in better style. 

The building has modern stained-glass windows — good of 
their kind — in which are portraits of the Burgundian Princes, 
from the beginning of the dynasty down to the time of Maria 
Theresa of Austria and Francis I. The fine large window 
which faces the high altar has represented in it the History 
of the Passion, the Origin of the Sacred Blood, and the inci- 
dents accompanying its transport to Bruges by the Flemish 
Crusaders. At the top of the window is the emblematical 
figure of the pelican feeding its young with its own blood. 

On the right of the chapel is a small one, separated from 
it by an arcade of three arches, in which is the tabernacle or 
canopy under which the Sacred Blood is exhibited every 
Friday. This famous relic, which has from the date of its 
presentation to the city been held in the greatest reverence 
by the citizens of Bruges, is contained in a phial, placed in 
a crystal cylinder by the Bishop of Ancone in 1388. 



294 THE BELGIANS AT HOME ^' 

The Museum of the Confraternity is on the first floor, and |{ 
amongst its many treasures is the beautiful reliquary in 
silver-gilt, containing the precious drops of the Blood of our 
Saviour. It is adorned vi^ith figures of Christ, the Virgin, 
St. Basil, the patron saint of the church, and St. Donatian. 
This famous and great reliquary is only used when the Blood 
is carried in procession on the first Monday after May 2. 
The pageant is remarkably picturesque and impressive, and 
one well worth seeing as it passes on its way through the 
ancient streets and amid the kneeling, reverent throng 
gathered from all parts of Belgium. The white and brilliant 
vestments of the priests, the white surplices of the choir and 
others contrasting with the sombre colour-tones of buildings 
and of the masses of sightseers. 

The interesting portraits by P. Pourbus of the members 
of the Confraternity of the Sacred Blood, painted about the 
middle of the sixteenth century, should also be noticed. 
There is a triptych dating from the early part of the same 
century by an unknown artist depicting the Crucifixion, and 
Gerard David's fine work (by some considered the art trea- 
sure of the Museum) is also a triptych placed on the right- 
hand wall. The subjects are the Burial of the Saviour, the 
Maries, St. John and Nicodemus, with an attendant, who is 
catching the Blood on a dish as it flows from the wounds. 
The wing pictures are of the Magdalen with Cleophas, and 
the preservation of the Crown of Thorns by Joseph of Ari- 
mathea. The work is distinguished in particular by reason 
of the delicate and detailed portraiture of the faces. 

The lower chapel is an unusually fine specimen of Late 
Romanesque architecture, and dates from about the middle 
of the twelfth century. The contrast of its short, heavy 
columns and round arches with the lighter and Later Gothic 
work of the upper building is most noticeable. There is an 
interesting medieval relief, representing a baptism with a 
hovering dove, above the entrance to the eastern chapel. 

On the eastern side of the Place du Bourg stands the 
Palais de Justice, an uninteresting and heavy-looking building 
erected upon the site of the ancient palace of the Counts of 
Flanders, which succeeded the older building, known as the 
Louve, about 1440. Parts of the Renaissance building which 
was erected between 1520 and 1608 remain. 

In the Court-room, or ancient hall of the Guild, is one of 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 295 

the most remarkable and beautiful Renaissance fireplaces in 
Flanders. Almost the whole side of the room is occupied 
by it. The work of the artist Lancelot Blondeel and of 
Guyot de Beaugrant de Malines, it was executed for the 
Council of the Liberty of Bruges in honour of the Treaty of 
Cambrai after the Battle of Pavia, by which Francis V. of 
France was compelled to acknowledge the independence of 
Flanders in 1529. The fireplace consists of two portions : 
the upper part is of oak, and the lower (or chimneypiece 
proper) of black Dinant marble. The latter has four bas- 
reliefs in white alabaster representing the History of 
Susannah, which subject would appear to have been selected 
with a view to giving Guyot de Beaugrant an opportunity of 
showing his knowledge of the nude figure. There are genii 
by the same artist at the corners of the frieze, and the whole 
work is a good example of the Pagan taste of the period. 
The upper portion of the oak carving has a fine centre statue 
of Charles V. and busts of his father, Philippe le Bel, and 
mother, Johanna of Spain, nicknamed "the Mad." The 
former bust is not well placed. To the right and left are 
statues of other Counts of Flanders and Sovereigns, among 
them Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, Charles' paternal 
grandfather and grandmother; Ferdinand of Aragon and 
Isabella of Castile, his maternal grandfather and grand- 
mother. 

The tapestry on the walls, though interesting, is modern, 
made at Inglemunster from some fragments which were 
discovered preserved in the cellar of the ancient building. 

As one crosses the little tree-planted portion of the 
northern side of the square one treads upon the site of the 
ancient cathedral church of St. Donatian, which was 
destroyed by the army of the French Revolutionists in 1799. 

In the streets environing this square are many interesting 
and ancient buildings, which space does not permit us to 
describe in detail, or even to refer to individually. They 
form the treasure trove of the student and lover of the past. 

To the Hopital de St. JeaUy that picturesque medieval 
building full of historic memories and containing the 
wonderful work of Hans Memlinc, one can come by several 
routes, but the adventurous and the lover of the picturesque 
will be well advised to do so by way of the Place des Tanneurs, 
charming Quai du Rosaire, and along the canal, which can be 



296 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

reached through the archway leading between the Hotel de 
Ville and the Ancien Greffe. If the route be a little devious, 
one is amply repaid by the fine, and perhaps the most 
picturesque, view of all one obtains of the Hotel de Ville and 
Belfry. Moreover, one can pass through the interesting and 
strangely quaint Marche aux Poissons, set a little back from 
the quay, through the window of one of the last shops or 
houses on the western side of which a wonderful view of the 
tower and spire of distant Notre Dame is obtained, if one 
but asks permission with a few courteous words and a 
smile. 

All along the quays are houses of interest, strange types of 
street merchants, and what one is tempted to class as human 
survivals of the bygone days. Old men and women who 
appear to have stepped out of the canvases of the early 
nineteenth-century Flemish artists, seemingly aloof from all 
modern progress as regards both their attire and methods of 
thought. 

By such a fascinating deviation from the *' route direct " 
one comes at length to the famous and picturesque Hospital 
of St. John, with its tottering and crumbling walls almost 
slipping into the water, and at the time of our visit beautified 
by greenery and yellow and brown wallflowers. This foun- 
dation of Augustinian brothers and nuns dates from as early 
as 1 188, and maintains even at the present day within and 
without its medieval character. It is not only one of the 
most ancient institutions in Bruges, but in the whole of 
Europe ; and the " brothers " and nuns still tend the sick in 
the original building, though this of late years has been 
largely added to. Although a visit to the hospital as a 
building and institution is interesting, it is for its small 
picture-gallery of world-wide fame that the Hospital is chiefly 
sought. *' To miss this," one writer has said, " is to have 
missed one of the chief glories of Bruges, and, indeed, of 
medieval art." 

The peaceful courtyard of the Hospital, with its mellow 
buildings and lichened walls surrounding it, will appeal to 
all lovers of quietude and of the picturesque. On the last 
occasion of our visiting it a strange insistent touch of 
modernity was lent to it by the presence of a group of the 
nuns, doctors in their shirt sleeves, and a famous physician 
in a curly-brimmed silk hat and frock-coat, engaged in an 






STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 297 

earnest consultation near the great flower-bed in the centre 
of the courtyard. The nuns with their picturesque and flap- 
ping white coifs were " in the picture," and struck no note 
of incongruity, but the doctors ! — and especially he of the 
silk hat. One awoke from a vision of medievalism to a 
realization that this was the twentieth, and not the fifteenth 
century, and to a remembrance of the universality of sickness 
and pain. 

Before entering the former Chapter House of the Hospital 
we took a glimpse of the Hospital itself. Through wide 
glazed doors we saw a vista of waving green trees, and sick 
and convalescent folk lying beneath them with the beautiful 
old-time terrace overhanging the canal not far beyond. 

Here one has the opportunity of studying, amid surround- 
ings which are singularly happy and appropriate, the ex- 
quisite art of Hans Memlinc, whose wonderful genius of 
miniature-painting and of poetry in pigments is here far 
better represented in its fulness and richness of accomplish- 
ment than anywhere else. It is interesting to remember, 
whilst looking at the pictures of this long-dead master of 
form and colour, that many of them were painted for the 
institution that still possesses them, and that, happily, one 
thus sees them undivorced from their natural surroundings. 

Of Hans Memlinc, the man (whose name is variously 
written, as we have it, and also as Memling and Memlin), little 
is known, but the artist has his best and most enduring 
monument in his work. 

Bruges has been celebrated for centuries as the home of a 
school of artists whose work (even when they themselves 
have been aliens to the city) is easily distinguishable by 
students and connoisseurs by reason of characteristic qualities 
of composition and colouring, and the importance of the 
backgrounds and peculiarities of framing which prevailed. 
The school has two chief epochs, the one prior to the Van 
Eycks, in which are to be placed many of the water-colour 
drawings found in the tombs at Bruges, Ste. Croix, and 
other neighbouring places, and upon the walls of St. Saveur 
and Notre Dame. In the Cathedral, we may mention in 
this connection, there is a peculiarly interesting panel dating 
from about 1400, on which is a representation of the Calvary 
with St. Catherine and St. Barbara. The artist was obviously 
influenced by the works of the Cologne school, and many 



298 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

experts profess to see in this particular work a faint indica- 
tion of the coming exquisite work of Hans Memlinc. 

The art of the two Van Eycks commenced the second 
epoch of the Bruges school, and in its development the more 
conventional characteristics of previous painters — for ex- 
ample, diapered or gilt backgrounds — gradually disappeared, 
to give place to the more vital, picturesque scenes and land- 
scape backgrounds. At the same time, aerial perspective, 
relying more for its effect upon the choice of colours and 
diversity of lighting than upon drawing, was introduced. 
Painting, in a word, became an art in itself, no longer, as 
formerly, largely dependent upon architecture. Of the two 
Van Eycks, John, although taught by his brother Hubert, 
exhibits the greater strength and realism, and it is to him 
that succeeding painters of Bruges owe most as regards 
influence. Of the more notable of his successors, Hans 
Memlinc, Gerard David, and others kept very much to his 
scale of colouring, and even in a measure to his style and 
rules of composition. During his life at the Hague, doubt- 
less Jan Van Eyck influenced the noted painters of Haarlem. 
Hubert Van Eyck's methods and style were more followed 
by Peter Christus, a native of Baerle, in North Brabant, 
who, however, never attained to the strength of his master, 
and was more graceful, though less animated, in style than 
Jan Van Eyck, of whom, according to some authorities, he 
was a pupil. 

The third Epoch covers the Renaissance period from about 
1510-1660. Painters had commenced to feel the influence of 
the " humanists " and poets, and had become no longer 
mere painters, but artists. As one writer of distinction 
phrases it : " They had now become interpreters of con- 
temporary literature, with its complicated and often abstruse 
allegories, and its emblems." Although the influence of 
Gerard David was still felt, that of Quentin Matsys, the 
painter of human feeling, and more particularly of human 
life, was exercising a great influence which tended to weaken 
the religious feeling. ^ 

Of the painters of the last Epoch we may mention John ^ 
Provost, whose works from their dull colouring have a ' 
sombre effect ; James Van Den Coornhuse ; and Albert 
Cornelius ; all of whom lived and worked during the period 
covered by the years 1500-1580. Lancelot Blondeel (whose 



i 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 299 

name has been mentioned several times already) is a very 
typical artist. He lived from about the middle of the last 
decade of the fifteenth century till 1561, and some of his 
work certainly suggests that he was influenced by that of 
Raphael, whilst in the decorative portions of his paintings 
one may find traces of the influence of German artists of his 
time. He was a distinguished architect and an engineer. 

Of artists of the second period may be mentioned, Pieter 
Pourbus, or Poerbus (1540-84), the son-in-law of Lancelot 
Blondeel, who was born in Gelderland, but came to, and worked 
in, Bruges. His portraits comprise some of his best work, and 
in almost all his pictures one finds his especial qualities, rich- 
ness of colouring, and cleverness of composition. An interest- 
ing feature of the pictures he left behind him is the unusually 
perfect state in which they remain, due, it is thought, to 
some special method of preservation, the secret of which he 
possessed. The work of Fran9ois Pourbus, who was his 
contemporary, and lived from 1545-1581, is much like that 
of Peter, but inferior to it. Then came the Claeissens, of 
whom Pieter, the younger, who died in 1612, and Anthony, 
who died in the following year, both deserve some notice. 
They worthily carried on the traditions of local art. 

There remain yet for consideration the Bruges artists of 
the Flemish school, who got to be known as Romanists by 
reason of their so often going to study the art of painting in 
Rome, thus becoming deeply influenced by the work of 
Italian masters. From that time the Bruges school became 
lost in the wider one known as the Flemish, the principal 
centre of whose efforts was Antwerp. This school came to 
its greatest fame and perfection in the person and works of 
Rubens. The native artists of the seventeenth century, 
whilst owing something to Italian influence, were yet more 
under the spell of the great native master. They, however, 
at the same time evinced a considerable degree of originality. 
Of these later painters, the two Van Oosts (1600-1713) are 
worth careful study. James Van Oost the elder un- 
doubtedly often copied Rubens, but he was endowed with a 
great original gift for brilliant composition, and many of his 
works are distinguished for an absence of the exaggerated 
foreshortening, and often theatrical style of posing affected 
by many of his contemporaries. The portraits of his son are 
distinguished, and sometimes of a Van Dyck-like character. 



300 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Belonging also to about this period were Ghislain Vroilynck, 
Gerard Seghers of Antwerp (1591-1651), Louis and Anna De 
Deyster (1670-1747), and the two Reeregoudts, father and 
son (1633-1724), all painters of some note. 

Bruges has also produced several painters of the French 
school. Of them, Garemyn (17 12-1799), though, or perhaps 
we should say because, working in an era of artistic and 
almost univeral decay, is probably the greatest. His work is 
distinguished by easy pencilling, bright colouring, and rich 
composition, and although known to comparatively few save 
connoisseurs outside his own town, is of such merit as to 
challenge comparison with some of the best work of Boucher; 
Suvee, who was director of the French Academy in Rome 
(1743-1807) ; Ducq (1762-1829) ; and Kinsoen, the well- 
known portrait-painter (1770-1839), may be mentioned as 
outstanding examples, though by no means exhausting the 
list of distinguished Bruges artists of the various epochs 
with which we have thus briefly dealt. 

To return, however, to Hans Memlinc and the Hopital 
de St. Jean. Referring to Mr. Weale, we find that the artist 
whose chief works are enshrined in the old-world hospital 
was probably born in Germany* about the year 1430, 
and is generally thought to have been a pupil of Roger 
Van Der Weyden, of Brussels. He was, at the time 
of his coming to Bruges, about 1478, a man of con- 
siderable wealth. He died in 1495, and thus his period of 
active work coincides very nearly with that of the earlier 
works of Carpaccio and Perugino in Italy. He was born 
some ten years before the death of Jan Van Eyck, and was 
younger by thirty years than his master Van De Weyden, 
and the senior of Gerard David by almost as much. Memlinc's 
claim to be considered the Fra Angelico of Flanders can 
only rest upon his resemblance to the panel work of the 
latter. When Fra Angelico worked in fresco his method 
and style were entirely different from that of Memlinc. 

As is well known, the best of all Memlinc's work is that 
adorning the wonderful chasse or shrine made to contain the 
relic or holy arm of St. Ursula. It was this chasse that the 
Hospital authorities commissioned of Memlinc in 1480- 1489. 

The story of St. Ursula is briefly as follows. She is 
supposed to have been a British princess brought up in the 
* Possibly at Mayence. — C. H. 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 301 

Christian faith, and in due time to have been sought in 
marriage by a pagan prince called Conon, who was supposed 
to be a son of Agrippinus, an English king. This King, so 
the legend goes, sent ambassadors to the father of Ursula, 
who was a King of Britain or Brittany, with a request for the 
hand of his daughter in marriage with his heir. Ursula, 
however, before consenting made three conditions. The 
first was that she should be given as companions ten noble 
virgins, and that she and each of the latter should be accom- 
panied by a thousand maidens as attendants. The second 
condition was that they should all of them visit the shrines of 
the saints. The third that the prince she was to wed should 
with his court be baptized into the Christian faith. 

In compliance with these conditions, we are told, Agrippinus 
collected the 11,000 virgins. Ursula and her companions set 
sail for Cologne, which she reached miraculously without any 
sailors to man the ship, although it is seen that Memlinc in 
his painting has put some in. Whilst at Cologne, Ursula 
had a vision telling her to go to Rome. Obedient to this, she 
voyaged up the Rhine as far as Basle, where she landed and 
continued the journey on foot over the Alps. On nearing 
Rome by way of the Tiber, the then Pope, St. Cyriacus, went 
out to meet her, accompanied by all his clergy. After having 
blessed Ursula and her maidens he conducted them to an 
encampment on the Tivoli side of the city, where he had had 
tents pitched for their accommodation lest they should come 
to harm in Rome itself, which at that period did not enjoy 
a very high reputation for morals. By a miraculous chance 
Prince Conon himself, travelling by a different route, arrived 
at Rome on the same day as his future wife. He was later 
on baptized by St. Cyriacus in the name of Ethereus. 

After a short time, Ursula and her maidens began to be- 
think them of returning home, and upon conveying their in- 
tention to the Pope he decided (such was doubtless the attrac- 
tion of this army of 11,000 maidens) to accompany them 
with his cardinals, archbishops, bishops and other prelates. 
This unique party ultimately set forth, and, crossing the Alps, 
reached Basle, and from thence proceeded down the Rhine 
in boats to Cologne. 

It so happened that the Huns, who were overrunning 
Central Europe at the time, were engaged in besieging the 
Roman colony at Cologne, and they promptly fell upon the 



302 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

army of virgins and their ecclesiastical fellow-travellers. The 
betrothed husband of St. Ursula, the Prince Ethereus, was 
the first to be slain ; and after him all the ecclesiastics, 
including the Pope himself, fell. The ii,ooo virgins were 
then slaughtered, only St. Ursula herself being saved. She 
was taken before the Hunnish leader, who offered to spare 
her if she would wed him. This the saint refused to do, 
whereupon the King of the Huns seized his bow and shot 
her thrice in the breast with arrows. It is for this reason 
that Ursula's emblem is an arrow. This saint is the patron- 
ness of maidenhood and virgins, and thus it is appropriate 
that her shrine should be connected with a nunnery. 

The chasse, or shrine, of St. Ursula is fashioned in the 
form of a miniature Gothic chapel. This is placed in the 
centre of the room in which these art treasures are found. 
There is no space at our command for detailed description, 
much less for criticism or examination, of these wonderful 
masterpieces in miniature. Those of our readers who have 
read their Conway will not need this ; those to whom 
Conway's admirable volume is unfamiliar cannot do better 
than become acquainted with it, or with some smaller hand- 
book dealing with the artist and his work.* It will be easy 
for anyone to follow the story of the life, journeys, and 
martyrdom of the Saint and her companions from the brief 
summary of the legendary tale which we have just given. 
Concerning the astounding beauty and charm of Memlinc's 
exquisite and truly poetical work there can be no two opinions* 
He has vested this series of pictures with all the glamour of 
a poetical medieval romance. As a literalist — in the sense 
that he was a master of most accurate historical detail — 
he also appeals to the student, whether the latter be one of 
archaeology, costume, or manners. His general accuracy is 
admitted, and, though the relative positions of buildings may 
have been altered, one can accept Memlinc's representation 
of them as correct. 

In the first panel on the left St. Ursula and her maidens 
are seen arriving at Cologne, attired in the rich and graceful 
dress of the fifteenth-century Burgundian Court. In the 
second panel they are seen disembarking at Basle from the 
ships. Here it is that Memlinc (possibly not accepting the 

* " Memlinc," by W. H. J. and J. C. Weale (" Masterpieces in Colour " 
Series). 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 303 

legend of the miraculous voyage of these 11,000 maidens in 
sailorless ships) introduces the figures of " shipmen " of the 
period. In the third panel (which by many authorities, and 
most other folk, we fancy, is considered the most beautiful) 
the Saint and her companions are seen arriving at Rome, and 
entering the Eternal City through a distant triumphal arch. 

On the first panel at the other side of the chassey com- 
mencing on the left, one sees the Pope and his companion 
ecclesiastics (who have accompanied St. Ursula and her 
maidens) embarking at Basle for their journey to Cologne. 
There are three episodes depicted here connected together — 
the Pope stepping with obvious caution into the ship, the 
same seated, and the ship on its way dow^n the Rhine. The 
faces of most of the figures are w^onderful examples of 
Memlinc's miniature portrait-painting, and were, no doubt, 
excellent " likenesses " of the models who sat for them, or 
the persons the artist had in mind. 

The second panel shows the arrival of the Pope and his 
companions, and Ursula and her maidens, at Cologne, where 
they are at once attacked by the Huns. 

The third panel is a continuation of the subject of the 
last. The King of the Huns, a figure in full armour, is seen 
at his tent door, bending his bow to shoot St. Ursula, who 
has refused to wed him. Gathered around the Hunnish 
leader are knights, also in armour, most skilfully painted. 

The two ends of the famous chasse contains panels. One 
shows St. Ursula, with her emblem, the arrow, posing in her 
character of protectress of young girls, and sheltering a 
number of them under her cloak. At the other end of the 
shrine is a painting of the Virgin and Child, holding an 
apple, whilst two nuns of the Order of St. Augustine are 
seen kneeling. 

The pictorial decorations of the roof of the chasse consist 
of a painting of St. Ursula receiving her crown of martyr- 
dom ; and at the two sides of the group, which included the 
figures of the Holy Trinity, are seen two angels, one playing 
a mandoline and the other a portable organ of the period. 
The other picture represents St. Ursula in Paradise, sur- 
rounded by her maidens, together with the Pope and the 
other martyred ecclesiastics in the background. It should 
be noted that this last painting owes a good deal of its 
" inspiration " to the famous work by Stephan Lochner on 



304 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

the high altar in the Cathedral at Cologne. At the side of 
this are two more angels playing upon a violin and zither. 

Such, then, is a brief description of the most wonderful 
pictures, not alone in this city of Bruges, but in all Flanders. 
To give any adequate impression of their exquisite colouring, 
charm of composition, and entrancing interest, is impossible 
in print. Hours may be spent in their study by the student 
without their astonishing genius and charm palling, yet 
those who can give but a few moments to their viewing 
cannot fail to go away conscious of having seen, however 
imperfectly, some of the greatest masterpieces of art dating 
from the end of the Middle Ages. 

The famous triptych of Memlinc, painted at the behest 
of Jan Floreins, a Brother, and the Master, of the Hospital 
in 1479, is placed near the window close to the entrance 
door of the room. The central panel represents the Adora- 
tion of the Magi, which event is depicted as taking place 
in a ruined temple which has been turned into a manger. 
On the left of the picture are figures of the donor, Jan 
Floreins, and his brother Jacob ; whilst on the other side 
of the picture is seen a monkish-looking figure peering in 
through a window, and wearing the yellow cap which, it is 
interesting to note, is still worn by the convalescents of the 
hospital. By some authorities this is said to be a portrait 
of Memlinc himself. 

The left panel of the triptych has for its subject the 
Nativity, with the Virgin, St. Joseph, and two adoring 
angels. The right-hand panel depicts the Presentation of 
the Holy Child in the Temple, with Simeon, Anna, and 
St. Joseph dressed in red in the background. The outside 
panels have the figures of St. John the Baptist with the 
Lamb, and St. Veronica, showing the miraculous impression 
of the Divine countenance upon her napkin. The archi- 
tectural frame has a representation of the First Sin and 
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. 

The portraits of this wonderful altar-piece, which is 
Memlinc's masterpiece of this kind, are extraordinarily full 
of character, and the backgrounds of landscape or buildings 
of wonderful minuteness and charm. 

The authenticity of the triptych near the centre window 
of the room is doubted by some, though it is popularly 
attributed to Memlinc, and is accepted as his work by most 



STORIED CHARM OF ANCIENT BRUGES 305 

judges. The scene is the Descent from the Cross, with the 
figures of the Madonna, St. John, and St. Mary Magdalene 
in the foreground, whilst in the background are to be 
observed the preparations for the entombment. This paint- 
ing, which dates from the year 1480, has, unfortunately, been 
much injured, and appears to have originally lacked the 
perfect finish which one looks for in this artist's work. 

At the end of the room, at the time of our visit, was 
placed the largest of Memlinc's works, a triptych for the 
high altar of the Hospital Church. It is meant to glorify 
the two saints, John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, 
and to typify the two kinds of life, the active and the con- 
templative, represented by St. Catherine and St. Barbara 
respectively. The painting was the gift of Jan Floreins, 
who is represented in the background in his secular capacity 
of a public tester of wine. On the backgrounds and wings 
are depicted scenes from the lives of St. John the Baptist 
and St. John the Evangelist. Some of these, especially 
those above the figure of the Evangelist, are lacking in 
poetical imagery, and fall far below the painter's usual 
standard of artistic performance. The exterior wings are 
occupied by portraits of others of the donors — viz.. Ant. 
Zeghers, master of the Hospital ; Jacob de Cueninc, the 
treasurer; Agnes Casembrood, mistress of the Hospital; and 
Claire Van Hulsen, one of the Sisters. All of them with 
their patron saints. 

Though in composition, drawing, and colouring the paint- 
ing is a wonderful work, as a whole, it is not so perfect as 
regards conception as most of Memlinc's other masterpieces. 
One of the most interesting paintings in the background is 
the view of the commercial life of Bruges of the artist's time. 

The other Memlincs here are a portrait of Marie Moreel 
(depicted as the Sambetha Sibyl), who was the daughter of 
Willem Moreel, one of the artist's patrons. It is a fine, 
solidly-painted work, now much spoiled by the perishing of 
the glazing. Like most portraits of women of the period, 
the face is " wooden " in expression. Even that of the 
Madonna herself in medieval pictures suffers from this fail- 
ing, which may possibly have arisen from the fact that the 
early painters undoubtedly copied their faces of her from 
carved wooden figures, and the type seems to have become 
conventionally " fixed " and perpetuated. The faces of the 
20 



3o6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

men, especially of the older ones, in most pictures of the age 
are generally far better. The artists of the Middle Ages, it 
is clear, were much more interested in portraying facial 
character than mere facial beauty. 

On the same stand as the *' Deposition from the Cross" at 
the time of our last visit, was Memlinc's beautiful diptych of 
Martin Van Nieuwenhoven adoring the Virgin Mary. The 
right-hand panel is interesting from the fact that it has for 
its subject the finely-painted portrait of the donor, Nieuwen- 
hoven, in a brown velvet suit. The hands are joined 
together, in the conventional attitude of devotion, above an 
open Prayer- Book. The background is formed by windows, 
the upper portion of one of which contains stained glass, 
depicting the donor's patron saint, St. Martin. The "light" 
is open to disclose a charming view, such as Memlinc 
delighted in painting. This picture, which dates from 1487, 
once belonged to the Hospice of St. Julian, a half-secular, 
half-religious institution of the town, of which Van Nieuwen- 
hoven was one of the two patrons. To see the remaining, 
and seventh, of Memlinc's works, one must visit the Musee de 
VA caddmie. 



f 



CHAPTER XII 

SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS, AND SOME KNOWN AND LESS 
KNOWN HAUNTS IN BRUGES 

RICH in all that appertains to art, Bruges is well 
endowed with fine and interesting churches, them- 
selves the repositories of much historical data and of 
many fine pictures. Unhappily, the ancient Cathedral of 
St. Donatian — to which reference has already been made — 
was destroyed by the French during the Wars of the 
Revolution. 

It was whilst kneeling before the Lady altar of this church 
that Charles the Good, during the celebration of Mass on 
March i, was slain by the sword of Burchard, who, with some 
of his retainers, had crept unobserved into the church ; and 
outside of it, later on, that the Erembalds were to make their 
last gallant stand for their lives and their liberties. 

Tradition asserts that after the destruction of the Cathedra 
by the French, the stones of which it was built found their 
way into all parts of Flanders. Some, so the story goes, 
were used by the builders of the chMeau which lies on the 
high road to Thouront, about three miles distant from Bruges, 
between the villages of Steenbrugge and Lophem. If one 
asks the peasants anything concerning this beautifully 
situate residence, they shake their heads and repeat the 
legend of its building, and declare with emphasis bred of 
conviction that " no one has prospered who has lived beneath 
its roof. There is a curse upon it." 

Fortunately, however, for the city, for students of archi- 
tecture, and for the lovers of ancient and beautiful ecclesi- 
astical buildings, Bruges still possesses two churches of great 
charm and interest, as well as several of lesser note and 
importance. The two great churches of St. Sauveur and 

307 



3o8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Notre Dame both date from the most flourishing period of 
the town's history — that is to say, from the thirteenth to the 
fifteenth centuries. The former, which stands in the ceme- 
tery of St. Sauveur, is easily reached either from the Grande 
Place by way of the Rue des Pierres, or from the Gave Centrale 
by way of the Rue Sud du Sablon. The fine and impressive 
building has only ranked as a Cathedral since 1834, though 
it is of very ancient foundation. The original church, erected 
by St. Eloi or St. Eligius in 646, was ultimately — somewhere 
about the middle of the twelfth century — destroyed by fire, 
and the present building in the Early Gothic Style was 
erected in its place. 

The chief characteristic which will strike the student on the 
first view of St. Sauveur's is the shortness of the nave. It is 
possible that this is chiefly owing to the desire on the part 
of the rebuilders to retain as a feature of the church the 
Romanesque and solid-looking western tower of the more 
ancient building. This portion was burned five years after 
the church had been chosen to contain the throne of the 
bishop, and a few years later Chantrell designed the upper- 
most portion of the present-day structure. The church is 
almost entirely constructed of brick. It is more imposing 
than might be assumed from that fact, and consists of the 
western tower referred to, a nave of four bays, transepts 
having chapels on their eastern sides, and a choir with four 
bays which terminate in a five- sided apse. 

Upon entering the building, one is at once struck by the 
great height and spaciousness of the nave, which features 
confer upon it a dignity and importance. The church is not 
only particularly " well-furnished " with examples of Gothic 
and Renaissance work, but possesses a number of good and 
interesting pictures by native and other Belgian artists. 
Unfortunately, the fine tracery of the windows on the south 
side of the nave has been destroyed. There is a curious 
high-pointed triforium dating from the middle of the four- 
teenth century, between the arches of the nave and the 
windows of the clerestory, which is worth attention. 

The choir is shut off from the nave by a rood screen dating 
from 1682, constructed of vari-coloured marble in the de- 
based Renaissance or rococo style. Above the central arch 
is a colossal statue of the Deity by Artus Quellin the 
younger. 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 309 

Although the general effect of the architecture of both the 
nave and transept is rather severe it is softened by the 
really beautiful work (1183-T223) found in the first bays of 
the choir. The organ, placed above the screen, has a finely- 
carved case dating from about the middle of the seventeenth 
century. Through the grilles and gates which are in the 
inner faces of the three arches of the screen one can obtain 
delightful vistas of the beautiful choir. 

The stalls in the first two bays are interesting and fine 
examples of early fifteenth-century work, well worth attentive 
study. And, though they are not canopied, are greatly en- 
riched by tracery of the Decorated Period between the two 
arches, one of which is round and the other obtuse-headed. 
The under sides of the choir seats are carved wdth an amazing 
variety of subjects. They should be turned up and studied 
if the opportunity offers. 

The church, it should be noted, has been whitewashed 
several times. But Canon Leuridan in 1871 commenced 
cleaning this off, and afterwards had the whole church re- 
novated and decorated afresh by Baron Bethune d'Ydewalle, 
and A. Verheaegen in 1874-1875. For most people's taste the 
effect of the many colours used is too gaudy and flamboyant. 

The five eastern chapels are remarkable chiefly for their 
size ; they were the last portion of the Cathedral originally 
built, and date from about the year 1527. 

The left chapel of the transept, known as the Chapelle des 
Cordonniers (Chapel of the Shoemakers' Guild) contains 
some fine fifteenth-century woodcarving, and several good 
fourteenth and fifteenth century brasses, notably those of 
Martin de Visch (1452), Walter Voopman (1387), and the 
Scheie waerts (1483). 

The Cathedral, though containing few works of art of 
the highest merit, yet possesses many of interest. Among 
the best and most thought of may be mentioned that master- 
piece of Peter Pourbus, of Gouda, the triptych painted for the 
Guild of the Holy Sacrament which was connected with the 
church. On the back of the outer wings is a representation 
of the Miraculous Mass of St. Gregory, the legend regard- 
ing which tells us, that after the saint had consecrated the 
Host it was changed into the bodily presence of the Lord so 
that the scepticism of a doubter might be dissipated. The 
subject is one particularly applicable to a work painted for 



3IO THE- BELGIANS AT HOME 

the Guild, which was founded in honour of the beHef in 
actual Transubstantiation. On the right wing the Brothers 
of the Confraternity are seen in attendance upon the Pope, 
and as spectators of the miracle. These portraits, which 
are particularly good, are additionally interesting as showing 
the last stage in the evolution of native Flemish art before 
Rubens had revolutionized it. The inner picture has for its 
subject the Last Supper, and it will be noted that the figures 
of the Disciples are ranged round three sides of a table 
in conventional order; Judas occupying a position in the 
left of the foreground. The inner wings have as subjects 
Melchisidec giving bread and wine to Abraham ; and Elijah 
being fed by the Angel in the Wilderness. 

On the left wall of the Baptistery is a portion (two wings) 
of a quaint triptych representing St. Mary Magdalene with 
the pot of precious ointment ; St. Barbara and her tower ; 
St. Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar; and St. 
Nicholas raising to life the three boys who had been salted 
down for meat. The quaint ciborium for holding the Holy 
Oil, on which are reliefs of the Seven Joys of Mary, dating 
from about 1536, should not be overlooked. 

In the Third Chapel of the Ambulatory is the fine Re- 
naissance alabaster tomb of Archbishop Carondelet, dating 
from the middle of the sixteenth century. In this chapel is 
also the much-discussed triptych, now believed to be by 
Dierick Bouts of Louvain (for long attributed incorrectly to 
Hans Memlinc), the centre picture of which is St. Hippolytus 
in the act of being torn to piece by four horse s. The same 
saint confessing himself of the Christian faith, and condemned 
to be martyred, occupies the right wing, whilst the left con- 
tains portraits of the donors. The faces in this work of the 
painter (who rose from the people) show wonderful grasp of 
portraiture, which may have had not a little to do with the 
erroneous attributing of the pictures to Memlinc. 

James Van Oost the elder's " Annunciation and Descent 
of the Holy Ghost," dating from 1658, which is on the north 
side of the church, should not be missed by those interested 
in the Flemish school of painters. It is rendered addition- 
ally interesting from the fact that on the middle panel 
appear portraits of the artist and his son. 

Among the other art treasures of the church we have 
only space to mention is a picture painted on a wood panel, 





, . ,^Jl«*^^V 



4 



^fh^ 



A bru(;es (juav and view of belfry 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 311 

and protected by a shutter depending from curious and 
ancient hinges. It depicts the Crucifixion, St. Barbara, and 
St. Catherine. It dates from about 1390, and is of very 
great interest. The draperies appear to have been done in 
oil-colour, unless (which many connoisseurs believe) they 
were subsequently painted over or restored. The picture is 
a typical example of the old Bruges school of painting prior 
to the era of the Van Eycks. 

In the north transept and elsewhere in the church are to 
be seen the great canvases of Jan Van Orley, painted in the 
first quarter of the eighteenth century. They were originally 
in St. Donatian's, and from them the famous tapestries, 
which adorn the choir on great occasions, were woven. 

In the fifth apsidal chapel is an interesting stained-glass 
window by Jules Dobbelaere, representing the first 
missionaries to Flanders. 

On the south side wall of the transept are several notable 
works, amongst them the " Christ Crucified on Calvary," 
and other scenes from the Passion, by an unknown master, 
date about the commencement of the fifteenth century. 
These were for a long period attributed to Gerard Van Der 
Meire. ** The Resurrection," by Peter Claeissens the 
younger, 1585 : " The Institution of the Blessed Rosary," by 
Nicolas Liemakere (1575-1646) ; and " Christ Triumphing 
over Death and Hell," from the brush of J. Van Oost the 
elder. 

In the first chapel of the ambulatory will be found a most 
interesting painted crucifix on the altar, the oldest Renais- 
sance work of art in Bruges. In the churchwardens' vestry, 
or Chambre des Marguilliers, at the western end of the south 
aisle, is a leaden slab of especial interest to English people, 
coming as it did from the tomb of St. Gunhilde (1087), the 
sister of Harold, last King of the Saxons, who died at 
Bruges. The ivory pastoral staff of St. Maclou, who died 
about 565, and some ancient missals, are also worthy of study. 

The silver shrine of St. Donatian dates only from the 
seventeenth century, it having been made from a much older 
one of (probably) thirteenth-century work. The statuette of 
the angel, with enamelled wings, the two pricked figures 
of saints, the Madonna, and some of the precious stones, 
filigree-work, and flowers, belonged to this ancient casket. 
The large silver shrine of St. Eloi is the work of the same 



312 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

artist — J. Crabbe — who made that of the Holy Blood. It 
dates from 1612. 

It is but a couple of hundred yards or so through the 
quaint and tree-shadowed cemetery, and along the Rue St. 
Esprit, to the other chief church of Bruges, Notre Dame, 
whose beautiful spire seems to follow one in one's peregrina- 
tions of the quaint and narrow streets of the neighbourhood 
whenever a clear skyline and a little space is obtained. 
Founded, it is generally believed, by St. Boniface, an English- 
man, formerly called Winfrid, as early as 745, it is chiefly 
interesting to the student as comprising, in its vast and 
somewhat irregular structure, fragments of almost all known 
periods of architecture. It was upon the site of Winfrid's 
ancient chapel that, in about 880, the existing structure was 
commenced. 

Destroyed almost entirely by fire in 11 16, it was largely 
owing to the initiative and munificence of the Bishop, 
Charles the Good, that four or five years later it was rebuilt. 
Some remains of this twelfth-century church still exist, 
mainly in the north aisle of the nave, but by far the greater 
part of the present building was in course of erection during 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The tower dates 
from about 1297, the spire being added in 1320. 

The rebuilding of the side aisles and choir, it is generally 
believed, was carried out under the direction of architects 
of the Tournai school, and the work, though differing in 
style, is well-conceived and pleasing in character. Originally 
the western front possessed two round turrets, decorated 
with small columns, and a triple " lancet," with a gallery 
running above it. The large window of the present-day 
structure dates only from the end of the fifteenth or beginning 
of the sixteenth century. 

The plan of the church, from the fact that work of so 
many periods has been incorporated in the fabric, is an 
unusually irregular one, and it is largely owing to this that 
the building, seen either from without or within, has an 
undeniable charm, or picturesqueness, for the unlearned, and 
a deep interest for the architect and student. 

Neither the nave nor choir are intersected by a transept, 
and to them there are eleven bays, the sixth of which is 
considerably wider than its fellows, and serves to divide the 
nave and choir into two equal portions. It is flanked on the 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 313 

north by the tower. A three-sided apse forms the termina- 
tion of the choir, and another and corresponding apse opens 
from the middle of the ambulatory formed by the continua- 
tion of the choir aisles, the bays and eastern ends of which 
form a triangle. In the first four bays of the north aisle of 
the nave one finds Romanesque arcades, which are relics of 
the earlier church. These open into a narrow aisle, and 
between this and a much wider one, with a continuation 
into an apsidal chapel, is the tower, with the baptistery on 
its north side. 

There is a beautiful portico under the tower, called in 
Flemish Het Paradijs, dating from the second half of the 
fifteenth century, now converted into a baptistery. It is, 
unhappily, much defaced. 

The tower itself, as regards its lower or quadrangular 
portion, dates from 1297, and the spire, commenced in the 
same year, was completed in 1320. The whole structure is 
395 feet in height from the pavement. The masonry of the 
spire has on more than one occasion been injured by light- 
ning, and in 18 18 the upper structure was lowered no less 
than 50 feet in the work of reconstruction which had been 
rendered necessary from various causes. The one curious 
feature which speedily strikes even the casual observer is the 
use of red brick for the restoration of the spire, whilst the 
lower portion of the fabric is of yellow. The critic of archi- 
tecture will probably agree with us that the style of both the 
open-work cr-own of blue stone and the ornamental crockets 
are not in the best taste. 

As a whole the interior of the church has suffered much. 
From the sixteenth century onwards, it has been the " sport 
of chance and the victim of ill-advised attentions " on the 
part of " restorers " and others. It has more than once 
received disfiguring coats of whitewash — the first of which 
was applied in 1589 — and the last just three hundred years 
later. The latter wdll be entirely removed during the course 
of the restoration now in progress. Unfortunately, the 
beautiful triforium was pulled down, and in its place the 
present-day ugly arcades were erected. But on the whole 
the new work of restoration, which was commenced a few 
years ago by M. Charles Wulf, is careful and well-advised, 
and it is pleasant to think that ere long the old triforium 



314 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

will be restored partly by the aid of original materials 
discovered at the back of the arcades. 

Amongst the art and other treasures of this church none 
is more interesting or more beautiful than the Virgin and 
Child of Michael Angelo, which is placed in a black marble 
niche in a chapel formed by shutting off of the end of the 
outer south aisle, by means of the beautiful marble balustrade 
by Louis Jehotte. The figures are life size, and they were 
sculptured in 1511, very soon after the celebrated, group in 
St. Peter's, Rome. It is thought that this Bruges Madonna 
and Child is identical with that commissioned by a merchant 
of the city called Jan Mouscron, and described by Condivi 
and Vasari, incorrectly, as being of bronze. It is interesting 
to remember that the life-size original study for the Virgin's 
head is now in the South Kensington Museum. All will 
admire the beautiful and gracious lines and roundness of 
the two figures, qualities distinctive of this master's earlier 
works. No wonder Bruges rejected Horace Walpole's offer 
of 30,000 florins for this exquisite work.* 

In a closed chapel to the right in the ambulatory are the 
tombs of Charles the Bold, who died in 1477, and of Mary 
of Burgundy, his daughter, who died in 1482, and was the 
wife of the Emperor Maximilian, the last members of the 
House of Burgundy and of the native princes of the South 
Netherlands. Formerly, and prior to the French Revolu- 
tionary occupation of the country, these tombs stood in the 
choir. Though both are beautiful works of art of their kind, 
with life-size recumbent figures, that of Mary is of the 
greater artistic merit. The figures are of copper, richly 
gilded, and they are seen reclining upon marble sarcophagi, 
on the sides of which are enamelled the armorial bearings of 
the duchies, counties, and baronies of Burgundy. The tomb 
of Charles is of much later date than that of his daughter. 
It was erected and completed (like that of Maximilian in the 
Church of the Franciscans at Innsbruck, Tyrol) in the year 
1559? some considerable time after his death, at the instance 
of Philippe II., one of his descendants. On the tomb is the 
Duke's motto, " Je I'ay empris, bien en aviengne " ('* I have 
ventured, may it prosper "). The tomb is the work of Johghe- 



* Some authorities incline to the view that the actual carving was not 
the work of the master, but of one of his favourite pupils. 



I 

I 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 315 

linck of Antwerp, and cost (so tradition states) the then 
immense sum of 24,395 florins. 

The tomb of the Princess, who, it will be remembered, was 
killed at the early age of twenty-five by a fall from her horse 
whilst hunting with her husband near Bruges, is of great 
beauty and magnificence. It was designed and made by 
Peter Beckere of Brussels by order of her son, Philippe le 
Beau. It is in the Gothic Style — or rather, perhaps, may it 
be said to be in that which came between the later period of 
the Middle Ages and the completeness of the Renaissance — 
and it took the artist seven years to complete. After the 
Battle of Nancy on January 5, 1477, the body of Charles the 
Bold was brought to the Church of St. Donatian by his 
successor, Charles V., and was finally transported to Notre 
Dame by Philippe le Beau, and laid beside that of his 
daughter. 

Originally, this particular chapel was dedicated to Peter 
Lanchals, the friend of Maximilian, who was wrongly accused 
of an intention to deliver the city over to the Germans and 
destruction. By the irony of fate the unfortunate man, 
whose name signifies " long neck," and whose family crest 
is a swan, was delivered over to torture by an instrument 
which he had himself invented. This, we are told, was an 
invention more cruel than any other ever before known in 
Flanders. The night of his arrest, after he had long been a 
fugitive, the citizens greeted his progress to the Steen with 
howls of contempt, derision, and hatred, which were kept up 
outside his prison all night long. The Brugnois were mad 
with joy at the capture of their supposed enemy, cannon were 
discharged, bands of music paraded the chief streets and 
squares of the city, and the inhabitants indulged in a wild 
orgy of dancing and riotous feasting throughout the night. 
In this scene, in which, we are told, " many, both women and 
men, were so filled with wine that they lay in the streets all 
night," one catches a vivid, if but a transient, glimpse of the 
fierce hates and joys of the Middle Ages. Lanchals was 
executed on the morrow. To the last he clung fiercely to 
life, entreating his enemies to throw him into a dungeon, 
however dark and foul, so long as they let him live. 

One of not the least picturesque features of the canals of 
Bruges are the swans, which sail calmly and gracefully along 
their tideless waters. They are the descendants of the birds 



3i6 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

which, when Maximilian (who was imprisoned at the time of 
Lanchals's death) once more regained his hberty, he gave to 
the city, and bade the latter to maintain for all time as a 
perpetual reminder of Lanchals's death. 

On one of the walls of this same chapel is the Last 
Supper of Pieter Pourbus, of Gouda ; and also a fine 
enamelled and engraved brass of the middle of the sixteenth 
century, to Josse de Damhoudere and his wife. 

The pulpit of Notre Dame is of unusual beauty and charm, 
not alone on account of the fine workmanship of the carving, 
but by reason of the sentiment or spirit which permeates 
it. It is known as the chaire de verite. Religion (or Wisdom) 
is seen seated on the terrestrial globe with an open Bible 
upon her knees, whilst before this figure an angel is seen 
kneeling in the act of prayer. The figures are beautifully 
sculptured, and deserve careful inspection. Of the many 
Belgian examples of carved wooded chaires with which we 
have become familiar in our wanderings in this land of 
elaborate pulpits, few appear to us so instinct with the spirit 
of reverence and unostentatious beauty as that under notice. 

In the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which dates from 1473, 
are a series of interesting if not important pictures relating 
to the relic of the Holy Cross, which was presented to the 
Church of Notre Dame, in the year mentioned, by Walter 
Ootenhove. The pictures are the work of Peter de Brune, 
and were painted in 1632-1634. There is also an interesting 
crucifix of the end of the fifteenth century. 

The first chapel of the ambulatory, formerly called that of 
the Holy Trinity, contains four interesting high reliefs of the 
sixteenth century, which were restored and repainted in 1874. 
They were badly injured by the fanaticism of the Gueux in 
1579. There are several paintings of note among them, 
" Christ at Emmaus " generally ascribed (although there 
appears little actual evidence) to Carravaggio, and "The 
Vocation of St. Matthew" of Jacob Van Oost the elder, 
dating from 1640. 

On the left hand, at the entrance to the apse, is " The 
Adoration of the Shepherds," by Pieter Pourbus the younger. 
It is a winged picture, and is generally kept closed. On the 
left wing are seen the donor, Josse de Damhoudere, his 
patron saint and his four sons. On the right wing are 
depicted Damhoudere's wife Louise, her patron saint, 



i 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 317 

St. Louis of France, wearing a robe sprinkled with fleurs-de-lis, 
and a crown, and Louis Damhoudere's four daughters. On 
the outer wings are the Circumcision, and the Adoration of 
the Magi in grisaille. The inner central panel has for its 
subject the Adoration of the Shepherds. 

Near by is a finely-carved Gothic pew, belonging to the 
Van Der Gruthuise family, and formerly connected by a 
passage with the family mansion hard by. 

In the churchwardens' vestry there is an historical collec- 
tion of portraits of nearly all the provosts of the chapter ; 
and a very interesting interior view of the church, dating 
from 1670, which has been found valuable in assisting the 
work of restoration on original lines. 

The baptistery in the last bay on the outer left aisle should 
not be missed. In former times the porch, this gem of Late 
fourteenth-century Gothic, is beautiful exteriorly and charm- 
ing interiorly, and in it is an interesting font. 

Seen in sharp contrast with the severe and towering mass, 
against which this architectural gem appears as though 
sheltering itself, it has added delicacy and charm, and forms 
one of the most delightful pieces of architecture (perhaps to 
the ordinary observer the most delightful) in the whole 
building. 

On the west wall of the church will be found several 
pictures, which are worth inspection by those who have time 
at their disposal ; though few — save Segher's great picture, 
the "Adoration of the Magi," and Caspar de Crayer's 
" Adoration of the Infant Christ " — are either by well-known 
artists or of any great value. 

The remaining church in Bruges which calls for notice of 
any extended character is that of St. Jacques, a large and 
lofty building, situate in the west-central part of the city and 
most pleasantly reached from the station by way of the 
Quais, or along the clean and interesting Rue Nord du Sablon 
and Rue de la Monnaie, which leads into the Rue St. Jacques 
on the left. In this church, founded about the end of the 
twelfth century, there are m.any remains of good Middle 
Pointed detail to be picked out on the exterior of the build- 
ing, whilst in the northern portion are traces of the original 
sandstone work. But as a whole the building has at various 
times suffered greatly, firstly, at the hands of the iconoclasts, 
and afterwards at those of a succession of clumsy and taste- 



3i8 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

less innovators and would-be restorers. The plan includes a 
nave and choir with wide aisles. The transepts are short, 
and the northern one projects from the rather fine and 
impressive brick tower, the lower part of which, the 
transept (now the Chapel of All Souls), and the north nave, 
all date from the middle half of the thirteenth century. The 
apse of the nave just mentioned is the original choir of the 
church, and should be studied. There is a curious cornice 
on the outside. What with the depredations of the Gueux 
in the sixteenth century, who destroyed the beautiful 
fifteenth-century altar, the exquisite rood loft in grey stone, 
the stalls, and the stained glass windows, with the patch- 
work of restorers at various periods, there is little in the 
present-day building as regards its architecture to detain 
either the architect or student. There are, however, a few 
pictures in the church worth study. The reredos, which 
is in three compartments, depicts the legend of St. Lucy of 
Syracuse ; and is chiefly interesting from the fact that in the 
background is to be seen the tower and church of St. Jacques, 
as it was at the time the picture was painted. The figures 
are not well-proportioned, but the unknown, mid-fifteenth 
century artist was by no means a poor craftsman. 

A triptych (also at the western end of the north side of 
the church) is attributed to a Master of the Holy Blood, 
who appears to have been a pupil or follower of Gerard 
David. 

In the south chapel there is a fine work by Anton Claeis- 
sens, dating from 1590, the subject of which is the Worship 
of the Holy Eucharist ; and an interesting seventeenth- 
century Adoration of the Magi. 

The Chantry of Ferry de Gros, a Treasurer of the Order 
of the Golden Fleece, was erected in the early part of the 
sixteenth century (probably at the very commencement), his 
father, John de Gros, having in 1476 ordered the erection of 
the south chapel. Part of the pavement of the chantry is 
the original, and the altar is ancient. The tomb of Ferry de 
Gros and his two wives is a fine one, and forms a good 
example of early Renaissance workmanship. On the altar 
of this chapel is one of the chief treasures of the church, a 
majolica or enamelled terra-cotta low relief of the Virgin 
and Child in a fifteenth-century frame, surmounted by a 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 319 

wreath of fruit. The work is variously ascribed to Andrea 
della Robbia and Luca. 

The Chapel of Our Lady of Angels contains a good altar- 
piece, one of the best works of J. Van Oost the elder. The 
subject is the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. 

There are several other pictures we noted worth careful 
study by those really interested in the development of 
Flemish art. Among them a Holy Family, by J. Van 
Oost ; a triptych, by Pieter Pourbus, of the Blessed Virgin 
surrounded by her Seven Sorrows ; and the ancient altar- 
piece, once in the Chapel of Our Lady of Angels, showing 
the coronation of the Virgin, by Albert Cornells, dating 
from 15 17. There is a very large reredos in three compart- 
ments by Lancelot Blondeel, 1523, commissioned by the 
Guild of Barber-Surgeons. It depicts scenes from the legend 
of St. Cosmas and St. Damian, the patron saints of the 
Guild. Though it is supposed to rank high among the 
authenticated works of the artist, it is not impressive nor 
satisfying. 

There is also a good triptych supposed to be by Jan 
Mostart, the subject of which is the prophecies concerning 
Christ's Coming. It is worth attention as a good example 
of Flemish art of the period, and exhibiting the ideas of the 
Middle Ages concerning these prophecies. 

The pulpit is seventeenth-century, ornate and not in good 
taste; and the marble rood screen is garish and common- 
place. 

In the immediate neighbourhood of the church the ob- 
servant wanderer in the highways and byways will come 
across some excellent and most picturesque specimens of 
old-time houses. Several in the Rue du Marecage, No. 28 
in particular, and others at the corner of the Rue St. 
Jacques. The Goldsmiths' Tribune on the Pont Flamand ; 
and the beautiful old buildings in the Rue Queue de Vache 
(now Rue Pourbus), No. 7 especially, are also worth seeing. 

North-eastward from this district lies the Hospice de la 
Poterie, now an asylum or almshouses for old women, which 
should certainly be visited. It is picturesquely situate on 
the banks of the Reye, and is of so ancient a foundation that 
the present building, dating from about 1276, is supposed to 
have replaced an even earlier one. The first chapel dates from 
the end of the thirteenth century, and the present church 



320 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

— the three gables of which date from different periods, 
namely, central gable (about) 1354, left 1529, right 1523 — 
was first built about 1345. Though the church is of very 
simple design it forms an elegant and interesting example 
of architecture of the time. 

In the south chapel is the miraculous image of Our Lady 
of the Pottery standing upon the altar, dating from the thir- 
teenth century. Next to this chapel, placed on a bracket, is 
the votive statue of Our Lady, the legend in connection with 
which is that it was given in consequence of a vow made by 
the women of Bruges at the beginning of the fourteenth 
century, when the citizens were at war with Philippe le Bel. 
They promised, if success crowned their husbands' arms, that 
they would each year give a wax candle, weighing not less 
than thirty-six pounds, to Our Lady of the Pottery. In ful- 
filment of this vow, after the great victory of Mons-en-Pevle 
on August 18, 1304, the first candle was given; and ever 
since, with the exception of the period when the French 
Republican forces overran the country, and afterwards for 
about twenty years, the vow has been kept. Each year on 
the anniversary of the battle since 1839, when the event was 
reinstituted, a procession starts from the chapel of Notre 
Dame des A veugles on a pilgrimage to the Poterie. 

Some hours could be easily spent in this chapel, and the 
various rooms of the adjoining buildings, in the inspection of 
the religious relics — such as that of the Holy Thorn, and the 
fine reliquary monstrance of the fifteenth century in the 
vestry ; the treasures of the Museum, including a medieval 
rattle, which had to be sounded by a leper on his way through 
the streets as a warning of his approach ; low reliefs of the 
fourteenth century, and a chest of local workmanship dating 
from the commencement of the sixteenth century, which 
bears the motto of Charles V. 

The pictures include good examples of Jan Claeissens' 
" Christ with Four of His Apostles meeting Ten Lepers "; a 
triptych, by Pieter Claeissens, of the Madonna ; an arched 
triptych attributed to Pieter Pourbus (" Christ on the Cross "), 
and many others. To the treasures of tapestry, ancient 
furniture (in the Dining-Room and other parts of the Hos- 
pital), there is no space to refer in detail. 

In this abode of ancient peace we could have spent hours 
not only pleasantly, but with the knowledge that here, as in 




'A 

O 



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I— I 

Ph 

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I 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 321 

many other places in this charming old town of Bruges, one 
came into intimate contact with the spirit of the past, its 
beauty, and its sentiment. 

Another medieval building well worth visiting, easily 
reached on one's way back from the Hospice de la Poterie, 
along the Quais, and then down the Rue Espagnole, or from 
the Grande Place by way of the Rue Flamande and Rue de 
I'Academie, is the Poorters' Loge, or " Citizens' Lodge," till 
recent years the Academy of Fine Arts. It was in the four- 
teenth century the resort of the citizens — in fact, a kind of 
club — and in connection with it was a tilting club, known as 
the "White Bears." The emblem is still to be seen in a 
niche at the corner of the buildings, wearing a collar and 
bearing a shield, upon which are hunting horns and spears (?), 
in its hands, and this figure is known to the townsfolk by the 
nickname of the " Oldest Citizen of Bruges." The present 
effigy is not the original (now in Archaeological Museum), 
but a copy. 

The " Lodge " was purchased in the year 1441 by the 
Municipality, and was in 1719 given up to the purposes of 
an Art School. The chief frontage has been greatly extended, 
and that on the north unhappily decorated with poor statues. 
The building is now intended to serve as a Record Office, or 
repository for Government documents. 

Whilst in the Square of Jan Van Eyck, attention should 
be given to the fine white stone building on the north side, 
dating from 1477, and formerly the Grand Tonlieu, or office, 
I of the collector of market dues, an important functionary 
with an arduous office. It was held by the Lords of Ghis- 
telles, but ultimately, by marriage, the office passed to the 
Lords of Luxembourg, and Peter of that family built the 
present house. The beautiful porch bears the date 1477, 
but it is generally thought that the time of its erection is a 
year later. The upper story is now the public library. This 
contains some interesting manuscripts, an unusually fine 
collection of early-printed books dating prior to 1500, includ- 
ing several of Collard Manson, of Bruges, from 1475- 1484. 
The famous Steinmetz collection of drawings and engravings 
should also at least be glanced at. 

There are many of the old houses in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the Poorters' Loge. 

From the Poorters' Loge it is but a few yards to the 
21 



322 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

Musee Communal, or Academie, in the Rue St. Catherine. 
In it are gathered some of the most interesting and valuable 
examples of Early Flemish art, including Memlinc's seventh 
picture at Bruges, and world-famed v^orks of Van Eyck, 
Hugo Van der Goes, Gerard David, Jean Provost, Ant. 
Claeissens, Jacob Van Oost the elder, and others. 

Naturally one comes to the Memlinc first. It is interest- 
ing to study as a completion of the works at the Hopital St. 
Jean. This fine triptych, originally in the chapel of St. 
Christopher at St. Jacques, has for its central panel a repre- 
sentation of St. Christopher clad in a blue garment partly 
covered by a red cloak. The saint's face wears an astonished 
and perplexed expression, and is turned up so as to gaze at 
the infant Saviour seated on his shoulders. In the grotto is 
seen the hermit, lantern in hand, and leaning on his staif. 
To the right of the picture is St. Egidius with the doe, and 
on the left St. Maurus reading a book. The left wing 
contains a portrait of the Burgomaster, Willem Moreel, the 
donor, with his patron saint St. William and his five sons. 
On the left wing is depicted the donor's wife, Barbara 
Vlaendenbergh, with her patron saint St. Barbara, and no 
less than eleven daughters. In grisaille on the outer surface 
of the shutters are paintings of St. George and St. John the 
Baptist. The work is one of Memlinc's best, and the heads 
of the three saints in the central panel are particularly well 
drawn and painted with rare beauty. Unfortunately, the 
work has been greatly injured by the removal of the ancient 
varnish and by the passage of the years. 

It is not without benefit that the painting, *' The Baptism 
of Christ," by Gerard David, hanging on the occasion of our 
last visit opposite Memlinc's work, is compared with the 
triptych. The portraits of Jean de Trompes, the donor, his 
son, and his first wife, Elizabeth Van der Meersch, are 
boldly and well painted. The picture dates from 1508. 

There is no space for detailed description of other works, 
many of which are, however, well worth attentive study, 
but we would advise the student to compare Jan Provost's 
" Last Judgment " (1525), the flames of which are by Pieter 
Pourbus, and the picture by the latter having the same 
subject. There will easily be seen the advance in sentiment 
and good taste that Pourbus's work exhibits. This artist's 
other works — portraits of Jan Fernagant and his wife, 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 323 

Adriana de Buuc (1551), and the reredos, " The Descent 
from the Cross " — should be also noticed. 

Ant. Claeissen's *' Banquet at Bruges " (1574), and " Mars 
surrounded by the Fine Arts," with interesting distant view 
of the city, taken from beyond the Minnewater (1605), 
should not be missed ; and the same remark applies to Pieter 
Claeissens the elder's works, " The Covenant of Tournai, 
May 22, 1584," remarkable for the excellence of the 
expression on the faces and the colouring. 

In the south-western corner of the city, near the beautiful 
Minnewater and its ancient bridge, stands the Beguinage of 
the Vineyard, dating from the thirteenth century, a col- 
lection of picturesque, white-walled, and quaint houses, 
shadowed by ancient trees, and breathing quietude and 
peace. The Renaissance porch, with decorative paintings 
on the shingles of the roof, and church, are worth inspection ; 
and, if for nothing else than because of the strange old- 
world charm of the grassy, tree-shaded enclosure, across 
which " Sisters," in their flowing robes and white head-dresses, 
flit, the place is worth a visit. 

In the house of the Grande Dame, or Lady Superior, are 
some interesting and quaint pictures and furniture. The 
chapel contains a plain brass tomb of Margaret Van 
Ruwescure, dating from the end of the fourteenth century. 

From the courtyard of the Beguinage there is a beautiful 
vista of the elegant spire of Notre Dame, which composes 
into a charming picture above and beyond the high-pitched 
gables of the white-walled almshouses. 

No one should miss the walk under the trees beside the 
Minnewater, the romantic and poetical name given to the 
pool which was dug at the junction of the Reye and Zwin. 
It dates from time out of mind, and was, in 1330, enlarged so 
as to serve as a dock when the Canal was dug through 
Bruges from Ghent to Ostend. The present picturesque 
bridge, which spans the upper end of the lake, was built 
in the middle of the eighteenth century, replacing the long, 
ancient, wooden structure that had served the townsfolk 
from the end of the fourteenth till the end of the sixteenth 
century. The view from the bridge in either direction is 
charming : towards the town stretches the fine sheet of 
water, its surface broken by water-lilies and the stately 
passage of swans ; and in the other direction there is a 



324 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

pleasant vista of the country beyond across the canal. As 
is the case along the quaint old quays, artists abound, either 
painting the distant town, the remaining bridge tower 
(dating from 1401, and placed there by John Van Oudenarde 
and Martin Van Luevene, the beautiful sylvan scene, or 
the time-worn Hongersnoodmolen ('' Famine Mill "), built in 
1481, and recently restored and enlarged. 

Although both the old church of St. Walburga and that of 
Jerusalem may well be visited if time permit— and they 
have several points of interest for the student of archi- 
tecture — there is no need to describe either building in 
detail here. There is, indeed, so much in Bruges which is 
worth discovery by the curious, so much of charm that is 
indescribable and untranslatable in cold print, that one 
leaves the beautiful old town again and again after a visit 
with a sense of incomplete knowledge which is as fascinating 
as it is in a sense disappointing. 

At every street corner, in almost every obscure alley, is 
something worth careful investigation by the true vagabond, 
antiquary or artist. And along its Quais, and in the neigh- 
bourhood particularly of the famed Quai du Rosaire are those 
quaint and picturesque out-door markets of the flotsam and 
jetsam as it were of ancient houses, cottages, and buildings. 
The curious brazen bells, old armour, quaint Flemish pottery, 
carved woodwork, images of battered saints, brass and wooden 
crucifixes, pots, milk-cans, and odds and ends of other metal 
work which seldom fail to arrest the progress of the curious 
sightseer sauntering beneath the trees beside the now deserted 
waters of the canals. 

Then round a corner and one comes upon that most 
grievous sight for the bibliophile, piles of fragments of old 
books mingling with modern ones of no account. A few 
pages of a sixteenth-century volume on ecclesiastical doctrine 
or science rubbing shoulders with a stained and tattered 
reprint of a popular English or French novel. An ancient 
calf-bound tome upon husbandry side by side with a gaudy- 
covered Carte des Songes or brochure upon hydrostatics. 

A bundle of back numbers of La Vie Parisienne jostling 
against Dante''s " Inferno " in parts, with plates by Gustave 
Dor^. 

But as one watches the tourist and American curiosity- 
hunters eagerly inspecting, turning over, and handling the 




A CANAL, AND VISTA OF NOTRE DAME, liRUGES 



SOME ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN BRUGES 325 

brazen flotsam and jetsam spread out on the flags or cobbles 
beneath the trees alongside the Dyver, one remembers that 
it is not all ancient brass that shines so dully, or that has 
verdigris thick upon it. Some has come from Birmingham, 
or at least when new from the shops near the Quai St. Anne, 
to meet the purchaser in an alluring and seductive environ- 
ment, backed up by many protestations regarding its genuine- 
ness by buxom lady vendors, which may well deceive the 
unwary. 

Bruges is not without its quaint cafes and cabarets which 
the sojourner who has artistic or Bohemian tastes, or who 
cares for *' atmosphere," will surely (as did we) discover. In 
these one gets in touch with life of the less known sort of 
artists and dreamers of which there are not a few in Bruges. 

To the quaint Vlissinghe Taverne, with its picturesque court- 
yard, its charming gables and time-worn, tiled roof, its low- 
ceiled chambers and memories of Rubens, who used to haunt 
it, many yearly come. It lies not far from the Poorters' 
Loge in the Rue des Blanchisseurs, a narrow by-street which 
skirts the right bank of the canal. It is most easily reached 
from the Place Van Eyck along the Quai Spinola. Here one 
can get good coffee and good wine; and rest a while and 
smoke and muse of other days when the surrounding houses 
held the prosperous citizens and merchants of the great com- 
mercial Bruges, and sailors with the breath of salt sea clinging 
to them trod the neighbouring streets. 

Of less account artistically, but redolent of the unconven- 
tional, is the Maison Noire in the Rue des Tonneliers. It dates 
from the fifteenth century, and, if legend and history lie not, 
is steeped in tragedies which were common enough in the 
Middle Ages in such haunts. In its large room, in which 
more than one fierce duel was fought by the uncertain light 
of swaling candles to a fatal issue, and the inner chamber 
used for meetings, are still found some excellent specimens 
of old Flemish furniture, which give an old-time atmosphere 
to the rooms. Through the Porte des Moulins, and into the 
Rue Longue, which is not ill-named, and one comes to a cafe 
known as Le Lion Beige, little frequented by the tourist, we 
fancy, who usually confines his explorations to the circuit of 
the Vieux Bourgj and immediately adjacent streets of the 
Grande Place. It is the haunt of military officers by day and 
bohemian poets, painters, and dilletantes by night. On the 



326 THE BELGIANS AT HOME 

walls hang many paintings — some of merit, some impres- 
sionist studies of great boldness — and there are odds and 
ends of brass, of carvings, of gridirons, and less considered 
trifles to ** intrigue " the eye, as a French friend put it. 

It is a place worth visiting if you are curious, Bohemian 
in taste and a student of character, if only for the late walk 
back to the civilization and semi-modernity of the hotel and 
Grande Place along streets that are silent under the moon 
full early, even on a summer night. 

Bruges presents quite another aspect to the sojourner — 
and one that we may well carry away with us — on a fine 
Saturday night in summer. Then there is an excellent band 
playing good music, either in the vastness of the Grande Place, 
environed by antiquity, and awakening martial echoes linked 
to historic memories, or in the open space in front of the 
theatre in the Rue Flamande. Then the ancient Place and 
streets in the vicinity, at least for a time, appear crowded and 
instinct with bustling, joyous life, which, when the band 
pauses in its music-making, seems just a little out of 
character as one gazes upward at the tranquil, deep-blue 
vault of the evening sky silhouetting ancient roofs and quaint 
gables. 

Truly, to know Bruges la Morte one must dwell and linger 
in her, becoming a part not only of her spasmodic life and 
gaiety, but also of her dulness. Knowing not alone her 
treasures and architectural charms, but the decay and dis- 
integration which has set its seal upon so much that is 
desirable and historically interesting. 

One could not, indeed, turn one's face towards the sea 
and journey the few miles of pleasant road which lies 
between Bruges and Ostend on one's homeward way, with 
more fragrant and pleasant recollections than have been 
conjured up by this " dear old dead town," the memories 
of which will dwell with one when at last separated by " the 
waste of waters," which divides this land of historic charm 
and picturesqueness from our own. 



' 



INDEX 



Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 164 
Alva, Duke of, 24 
Anseremme, 149 
Antwerp, 228-253 

Cathedral of Notre Dame, 235- 

243 
Church of St. Jacques, 243-244 
Church of St. Paul, 245-246 
city's decline, 230-231 
environs of, 252 
history of the town, 228-230 
Hotel de Ville, 250-251 
Marche aux Gants, 236 
Musee Plantin-Moretus, 251 
Palais de Justice, 252 
Picture Gallery, 246-247 
Place Verte, 235 
the Bourse, 243 
trade of, 232 

Apaches, 30 

d'Arenburg, Chateau of the Due, 
206 

Artevelde, Jacques Van, 255-256 
assassination of Jacques Van, 

256 
Philip Van, 84-85, 256-257 

B 

Baldwin II., 12-13 

III., 13 

VII., 15-16 

Bras de Fer, 12 
Basina, wife of Childeric, 3-4 
Belgian cities, freedom and power 

of, I 
Belgians, discontent of the, 26,27 
Belgium, agricultural labourer in, 

49 
cochers of, 33-34 
cost of living in, 43-44 
domestic servants, 48 
earliest history of, 1-28 



327 



Belgium, lace-makers of, 44 

land, 49 

manufacturing industries, 48 

people of, 29 

population, 48 

railway officials in, 35-36 

women of, 38-42, 46 
Blankenberghe, 65-69 

old church at, 68-69 
Blondeel, Lancelot, 298-299 
" Borinage," the, 124-125 
Bouillon, Godfrey de, i 
Bourgeois, domestic life of Belgian, 

171 

Bouts, works of Dierick, 202 

Bouvignes, 141-142 

Brabant, invasion by Louis de 
Maele, 157 

Breidel, Jan, 284 

Bruges, 275-306, 307-326 

Beguinageof the Vineyard, 323 
belfry of, 285-287 
Canal Maritime, 283 
Cathedral of St. Donatian, 307 
Chapelle du St. Sang, 292 293 
Church of Notre Dame, 312-3 17 
of St. Jacques, 317-319 
of St. Sauveur, 308-311 
court of Dukes of Burgundy, 

279 
Cranenburg, 289 
decHne of, 280-282 
Hopital de St. Jean, 295, 297 
Hospice de la Poterie, 319-320 
Hotel de Ville, 290-291 
Le Lion Beige, 325-326 
Maison Noire, 325 
Musee Communal, 323 
the Citizens' Lodge, 321 
the Halles, 287 

tomb of Charles the Bold, 314 
tomb of Mary of Burgundy, 

314 
Vlissinghe Taverne, 325 



328 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



Brussels, 30, 154-192 
art treasures, 190 
Cathedral of St. Gudule, 178 
commercial and material pros- 
perity, 160 
Everard T'Serclaes and, 158 
foundation of the city, 155-156 
Hotel de Ville, 172-174 
Notre Dame de la Chapelle, 

184-185 
Notre Dame des Victoires du 

Sablon, 185-186 
other ancient buildings, 176 
Palace of the Due d' Arenburg, 

188-189 
Palais des Beaux Arts, 190 
de la Nation, 187 
de Justice, 188 
du Roi, 187 
present day, 166, 168 
social life of, 168-169 
society in, 46 
surroundings of, 191 
Wiertz Museum, 189 
workgirls of, 43 
Burgundian Dukes, 22 
Byron, 54-56 



Capet, Hugues, Duke of Paris, 13 
Caxton, 284 
Chalons, Battle of, 2 
Charlemagne, 9-10 
Charleroi, 130-13 1 
Charles, murder of. Count of 
Flanders, 16-17 

the Bold, 22-23 

V. of Austria, 23 
Chauwes, Roche aux, 140-141 
Childeric, 3 

discovery of grave of, 121 

extinction of race of, 9 

strange visions of, 4 
Chilperic I., 8-9 
Chlotaire, crimes of, 7 

II., 9 
Civil Service in Belgium, 37-38 
Cleves, Philippe of, 290 
Clovis, son of Childeric, 4 
Coninck, Pieter de, 284 
Courthose, Duke Robert's Dream, 

17.18 
Courtrai, 95-101 

Council Chamber, 100 

flax industry, loi 



Courtrai, Gothic town hall, 100 
Notre Dame, 98-99 
St. Martin's Church, 97.98 

D 

Dampierre, Guy de, 18 
Denys, Gerard, 256 
Dinant, 142-148 

Abbaye de Leffe, 142 

Casino at, 147-148 

Hotel dc Ville, 146-147 

Jardin de Montfat, 146 

Notre Dame, 145-146 

roaa to, 139 

siege of, 144 
Dixmude, 81-82 

Church of St. Nicholas, 82 

life of, 82 

people of, 82 
Dog traction, 40-41 
Dress, 47-48 

Dry Tor en, farmhouse of, 215 
Duquesnoy, " Mannikin" Fountain 
of, 176-177 



E 

Eyck, Hubert Van, 298 
Jan Van, 284-298 



Flanders, Counts of, 10, 20-22 

formation of, 11 

invasion by Thierry, Duke of 
Lorraine, 17 
Flemish School, artists of the, 299 
Fleurus, Battle of, 164 
Florenne, Dean Walhere of, 151 
" Foresters," 12 
Francs, the, i 

Frankenric, kingdom of the, 2 
Frankish power, Clevis's efforts to 

consolidate, 6 
Fredegonda, wife of Chilperic, 9 
French School, painters of the, 300 
Freyer, Chateau, 149-150 
Prison, Robert le, 14 
Furnes, 80-81 

Hotel de Ville, 80 

Palais de Justice, 80 

St. Walburga, 81 



Ghent, 254-274 

Abbey of St. Bavon, 271-272 



« 



INDEX 



329 



Ghent, Cathedral of St. Bavon, 
262-264 

Chapel of St. Macaire, 272 

Chateau des Comtes, 269-271 

chief industry of, 254 

Church of St. Michael, 261 
of St. Nicholas, 260-261 

Cloth Hall, 258-259 

Early Gothic belfry, 258 

Gravenstein, 259 

Hotel de Ville, 259-260 

industrial life of, 269 

lace and embroidery industry, 
274 

Le Rabot, 269 

Petite Beguinage de Notre 
Dame, 273 

St. Bavon, 261-262 
Givet, 152-153 

Church of St. Hilaire, 152 

La Roche k Bayard, 148 

the road to, 148 
" Gueux," the, 161 

H 

Hanseatic League, 278 
Hastiere-Lavaux, village of, 151- 

152, 
Hastiere-par-del^, village of, 151- 

152 
Hermeton-sur-Meuse, 152 
Heyst, 69-70 
Hood, Tom, 56-57 
Hougomont, Chateau de, 210-212 



Iconoclasts, the, 162 

J 

Judith, wife of Baldwin, Count of 
Flanders, 12 



K 



Knocke, 70-71 



Lanchals, history of Peter, 315 
Leopold L, election as King of 
Belgians, 27 
n., 28 
Ligny, Battle of, 206 
" Lineages," 161 
Louvain, 193, 196-197 



Louvain, Abbaye de Pare, 205-206 
archery meeting, 194-195 
Church of Ste. Gertrude, 204- 

205 
Church of St. Michael, 204 
Church of St. Pierre, 199-200 
Hotel de Ville, 197-199 
Library of the University, 203 
The Halles, 203 

M 

Malines, 214-227 

Church of Notre Dame, 223 

Church of St. Catherine, 222- 
223 

Church of St. Jean, 222 

Hotel de Ville, 217 

lace-makers of, 226-227 

old buildings, 224-225 

Palais de Justice, 224 

" Song of Lace-makers of the 
Bruges Country," 227 

St. Rombold, 217-218 

Vieux Palais, 217 
Mansion, Colard, 284 
Mariakerke, 72 
Mariemont, 130 

Matilda, wife of William the Con- 
queror, 14 
Maximilian, 289-290 
Maxim's, 63 

Memhnc, Hans, 284, 300-306 
Merghelynck, Hotel de, 93-94 
Middelkerke, 72 
Military officers, 36-37 
Minsau, story of Oliver, 261 
Miraculous wafers, legend of the, 

I 80-1 8 I 
Mont St. Jean, Ferme de, 212-213 
Mons, 126-130 

Hotel de Ville, 128 

road to, 123, 126 

St. Waltrudis, 128-129 

N 

Namur, 132-137 

Blanchisseuses, 137 
Cathedral of St. Aubin, 134- 

135 
Hotel de Ville, 136 

Place de la Station, 133 

St. Loup, 134 

The Boucherie, 136 

The Citadel, 134 

'* Nations," 161 



330 



THE BELGIANS AT HOME 



Nieuport, fishermen of, 78 

Gothic church, 79 

Hotel de Ville, 79-80 

Market Place, 78 

road to, 74, 78 
Nieuportville, 73 

O 

Ostend, 29-30, 51-65 

amusements, 54 

bathing at, 58-60 

by-ways and quays, 64-65 

dinner hour, 62 

Grande Caf^ de la Terrasse, 
62-63 

history of, 52-53 

holiday-makers at, 57-58 

old buildings, 65 

Tom Hood at, 56-57 
Oudenarde, 102-106 

Hotel de Ville, 102-103 

Notre Dame de Pamele, 104 

St. Walburga, 105-107 



Policemen, Belgian, 30-31 
Postmen, Belgian, 31-32 
Prie, Marquis de, 163 
Pyrenees, Treaty of the, 25 

R 

Reformation, the, 24 
Roi, Maison du, 175 
Roi, Palais du, 63-64 
Roosebeke, Battle of, 256 
Rouillon, 139-140 
Rubens, 247-248 
Ryswick, Peace of, 163 



Saventhem, 196 

Sedan, 153 

Sigebert, brother of Chilperic I., 8 

Sluys, 71 

Spaniards, struggle against, 24 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 

25 
Spurs, Battle of, 96-97 
Steen, Chateau of, 215 
St. Clotilde, daughter of Chilperic, 5 
St. Eleutherius, no 



St. Eloi, 1 19-120 

St. Gudule, 178, 181-182 

St. Hubert, Bishop of Liege, 154- 

155 
St. Ursula, story of, 300-302 
shrine of, 302-304 



Theresa, Maria, 163 
Thuringians, the, 3 
Tournai, 107-122 

belfry, 109 

chief modern industries, 108 

Church of St. Brice, 120 

Church of Notre Dame, 109- 
118 

Church of St. Quentin, 119 

Cloth Hall, 109 

interesting buildings and 
architecture, 122-123 

invasion of Normans, in 

Marie de Lalaing, Princess 
d'Epinoy, 107 

St. Jacques, 119 
T'Serclaes, 158-159 

death of, 159-160 
Tvndale, William, 214-215 



Vilvorde, 214 



V 



W 



of 



Waterloo, battlefield of, 207 
brief account of defence 

La Haie Sainte, 209 
La Haie Sainte, 207 

Waulsort, village of, 150 

Wavre, 206 

Westende, 72-73 



Ypres, 82-95 

Cathedral Church of 

Martin, 88-89 
history of, 84 
Hospice St. Jean, 95 
Hotel de Ville and Cloth Hall, 

85-87 
interesting buildings, 92-93 
lace-makers of, 84 



St. 



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